wts@winken.att.com (W T Sykes) (03/01/90)
Reprinted from the Greensboro (NC) News & Record,
March 1, 1990:
"LONG-DISTANCE CALLS TO TAKE MORE DIALING"
by Paul Nowell, The Associated Press
"CHARLOTTE (NC) - The thousands of new telephone numbers being
absorbed by such laborsaving devices as facsimile machines, pagers and
cellular phones are partly to blame making all North Carolinians work
a little bit harder when dialing.
Starting Friday, people who dial long distance within their
own area codes will have to include the three-digit code. The change
will make it possible to use 1.5 million new telephone numbers in both
the 704 and 919 calling areas.
"This small change in our dialing habits is a response to the
tremendous growth that North Carolina has experienced in the last
several years," said Joseph P. Lacher, Southern Bell vice president.
"We are simply running out of numbers."
The new system will give the state a previously untapped
supply of "prefix codes" - the first three digits of a local phone
number.
The new prefix codes will be combinations that had previously
been reserved for area codes. For example, a 213 prefix - which is
the area code for part of Los Angeles - will now be available for use
in both North Carolina area codes.
"But it also means we must use the 10-digit-dialing for all
long-distance calls," Lacher said. "If we did not require the use of
area codes on all long-distance calls, the (computer) switch would be
unable to process the call."
The alternative to 10-digit-dialing is a new area code for the
state. But Southern Bell officials say of the original 152 area
codes, only eight remain available.
Bellcore - the research and engineering arm of the Bell
operating companies that allocates area codes - is stingy with the
remaining supply until their is no other solution.
Other solutions are not always possible. Los Angeles will get
its third area code in 1992, less than 10 years after getting its
second. This past fall, Chicago got a second area code. In January,
New Jersey's 201 area code was split.
Those areas first went to 10-digit-dialing to handle growth
before getting a new area code, said Southern Bell spokesman Clifton
Metcalf.
By the mid-1990's, Bellcore is expected to start a new system
that will expand the number of area codes from 152 to 792, he said."
-- 30 --
William T. Sykes AT&T Federal Systems Research and Development
Burlington, NC UUCP:att!winken!wtsceb@csli.stanford.edu (Charles Buckley) (03/03/90)
Starting Friday, people who dial long distance within their own area codes will have to include the three-digit code. The change will make it possible to use 1.5 million new telephone numbers in both the 704 and 919 calling areas. Excuse me asking a dumb question, but what happened to uniformly prefixing other area codes by an access code (like 1, as done here). The Tarheel 10-digit scheme, in addition to being more ungainly, doesn't work as well, since would still not let, say 213, be used as an exchange prefix, as the 1+ scheme does. Unless you have to dial 1 as well to use different area codes, in which case the 10 digits are superflous. "But it also means we must use the 10-digit-dialing for all long-distance calls," Lacher said. "If we did not require the use of area codes on all long-distance calls, the (computer) switch would be unable to process the call." Sounds like an informed individual. LA and other A/C split] areas first went to 10-digit-dialing to handle growth before getting a new area code, said Southern Bell spokesman Clifton Metcalf. Not true: they used and still use the 1+area code schemes, like here in 415. My first thoughts were I think this is a form of blackmail, making people uncomfortable so they storm Bellcore for a new area code. Typical of NC politics. But after thinking about it longer I concluded that Southern Bell services only a small part of NC with local phone service, with the rest covered somewhat by GTE, but mainly by independents (like Carolina Telephone). However, chiefly due to its former membership is Bell system, Southern Bell carries most of the intra-LATA long distance. Independents can't afford fancy CO switches which can distinguish between local and long distance exchanges, so to handle "the long distance problem", they simply hand off all calls prefixed by 1 to Southern Bell. Since 1 prefixing is used to mean something else, it can't be used to signal an area code. Therefore, the lowest impact solution may well be to insist on 10 (really 11) digit dialling. Not pretty, though.