Chris Johnston <chris@gargoyle.uchicago.edu> (01/11/90)
When I was in Oakland (415) last summer I wasted nearly 20 minutes trying to call a San Francisco number. First I dialed 1-415-123-4567 and got an intercept "You do not need to dial 1 before this number". So I dialed 415-123-4567 and got the message "You must dial 1 before this number". Eventually I figured out I was already in 415 and was required to use the seven digit number. Yesterday something similar happened on the Howard "L" platform. One end of the platform is in Evanston the other in Chicago. Since I wanted to call a 708 number I carefully checked the number card on the (Illinois Bell) pay phone it (incorrectly) read 312. So I dialed 1-708-xxx-xxxx and got a recording which sounded like a local telco installer who gruffly said "<crackle> dial 1 <crackle>" I redialed without the areacode and got right through. Why can't I always use eleven digit dialing? Why must I know the local geography to dial a phone? Does anybody check these messages to see if they make sense? Is every switch message recorded locally? Could this be an old switch which is not centrally maintained? cj [Moderator's Note: Please double-check on this. The elevated platform is entirely in Chicago. The City of Evanston begins about five feet west of the embankment, and runs north parallel to the tracks for some distance. Several yards north where the turn-around is wedged into the corner of Clark Street (aka Chicago Avenue in Evanston) and Jonquil Terrace is Chicago. Evanston is on the west side of the street. Then, Chicago has a wedge that runs a block north, and terminates at the wall of the Calvary Cemetery. It is only at that point, where the tracks cross Clark Street/Chicago Avenue & Jonquil Terrace that the city of Evanston is east of the tracks. The last time I was there, the pay phones on the platform and the station downstairs were all Hollycourt 5 numbers, which is a Chicago (312-465) exchange. PT]
chris@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (Chris Johnston) (01/12/90)
In article <2790@accuvax.nwu.edu> you write: >X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 21, message 3 of 3 >[Moderator's Note: Please double-check on this. The elevated platform >is entirely in Chicago. > (convoluted boundaries omitted) >pay phones on the platform and the station downstairs were all >Hollycourt 5 numbers, which is a Chicago (312-465) exchange. PT] Patrick is right the Howard platform is entirely in Chicago. I checked a couple of pay phones including 312-465-9810. The switch is programmed incorrectly and won't allow 1-708- (or 1-312-) calls. First it returned my quarter then rang about three times, the recording was "We are sorry you must dial <pause> 1 before ... <static> <static>". The static was part of the recording. By the way the half dozen pay phones I checked in Wilmette and Evanston were incorrectly labeled with the 312 area code. >Why can't I always use eleven digit dialing? Why must I know the >local geography to dial a phone? cj
woolsey@ames.arc.nasa.gov> (01/16/90)
The moderator missed the point completely in his footnote to the article about not being able to dial local 1+10D calls in one's home NPA. The rest of the world cares very little about which end of the L platform is in which areacode relative to the issue of why one is universally prevented from dialing the local area code in North America. In the Dialing Instructions article appearing elsewhere in this newsgroup I noted that the dialing of which I speak was listed as permissive, yet I know of nowhere that permits it. This dialing restriction is a problem for widely distributed communications programs and other applications that deal with autodialing modems. (It can be addressed with 800 and 900 numbers which can be dialed the same way almost everywhere, the leading 1 being the only variant.) It is also a problem, crudely handled, for pocket autodialers that travellers carry. I hope there's a really good reason and not just some silly technical problem somewhere, such as old stupid switches immediately handing the number off to a tandem, if indeed there is any reason at all. Jeff Woolsey Microtec Research, Inc +1 408 980-1300 ...!apple!netcom!woolsey ...!amdcad!sun0!woolsey