nickless@flash.ras.anl.gov (Bill B40417 2-7390) (03/02/90)
In TELECOM Digest Volume 10 issue 134 Patrick Townson writes: > [Moderator's Note: It appears your local cable company has convinced > your local telco they should be allowed to use an 'equal access' 10xxx > code as though they were a telco. Although it sounds like a clever > idea, I can't help but object in principle to this mis-use of the numbering > scheme. I wonder if Bellcore or anyone else in authority is even aware > of it, or gave permission for it. PT] I wish that cellular phone companies would use the equal access 10xxx for "roaming" within LATA's. It would seem a cleaner interface than the current "roaming" number you have to prefix your calls with. If you knew a person was in your LATA and what their cellular phone number was, you could dial it by 10xxx-1-xxx-xxx-xxxx rather than having to dial a 926-ROAM, wait for dialtone, then 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx. A specific advantage of this would be telephone subscribers who don't have DTMF service or capability. Let the CO handle the digitization of the pulse dialing and hand it off to the cellular customer. Another advantage is that cellular companies could avoid having to return call supervision until the cellular phone called answered. Often the "roaming" numbers aren't local exchanges, even within a LATA (causing a charge for an uncompleted call.) Also, the cellular companies could charge the airtime for a call to a roaming cellular phone back to the call originator, rather than having to deal with out-of-state billing. If there are multiple cellular companies within a LATA, each could be assigned a particular 10xxx, even if the different cellular companies handled different geographical regions. How bad are the technical/political problems with this scheme? After all, in some senses cellular companies *are* telephone companies. Roaming cellular phones have unique numbers under the NANP, and cellular companies provide service to telephones which have numbers not assigned in the local LATA. .signature under construction detour mail to nickless@flash.ras.anl.gov