dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us (David W. Tamkin) (10/16/89)
Just a few stray thoughts after reading some recent issues:
Yes, Boushelle Carpet Cleaners still advertise in metropolitan Chicago
that their phone number is "HUdson three, two seven hundred." The
rugs you are having cleaned by Boushelle might have been purchased
from Lincoln Carpeting, whose jingle includes "NAtional two, nine
thousand, NAtional two [ring ring], nine thousand." The video for
Lincoln's commercial reads "NA2-9000" but I think Boushelle's spells
out "HUdson" or "Hudson". Neither displays the prefix as "483" or
"622". However, with the upcoming area code split, the videos for
both now show a small, silent "(312)" to the upper left.
Business cards, outdoor signs, and trucks are beginning to show the
708 area code here, and business in the city of Chicago are beginning
to include the (312) instead of just naming seven digits. No
advertising that I've seen in newspapers or on television or heard on
radio as yet gives 708 for any suburban business.
Our choke prefix here is 591. It will be seven-digit dialable from
both 312 and 708 (708 callers will still be charged for a call to
Chicago-Canal East), but I believe that outside area code 708 one will
have to dial appropriately to reach area code 312: +1 708 591 XXXX
will not work.
There are only two local telcos in 312 and 708 (not counting cellular
companies). Illinois Bell covers almost everything, but Central
Telephone has two CO's whose areas both straddle the 312/708 border.
The two companies are handling directory assistance rather
differently:
If you are calling from Illinois Bell service in Chicago and want DA
for a 708 suburb or are calling from Illinois Bell service in a 708
suburb and want DA for Chicago, you'll have to dial 1-NPA-555-1212,
but it will be charged only 30c, same as the cost to call 411 for your
own area code. I'm not sure about calls from IBT-owned payphones to
DA for the other side of the city limits; they currently do not charge
for 411. (Of course, from a COCOT, it's whatever the traffic will
bear. I seriously doubt that any COCOT, even those along the 312/708
borders, will treat an eleven-digit call to DA for the other side any
differently for a call to DA in another state.) Presumably, during
the grace period, 411 will be acceptable for requesting numbers in the
other area code; Illinois Bell could not give me a definite answer on
that nor on the cost of DA calls from payphones to the other side of
the line.
From Centel service, however, DA for 708 and 312 will be maintained
in a single location, and you will dial 411 for either. The operator
or the recording will include the area code when he/she/it tells you
the number. DA will still be 30c per call (but with two free calls
per line per billing cycle, free from Centel-owned payphones).
708 will, quite unnecessarily, be the first disjointed NPA: of the
four geographic holes in the city of Chicago, one will be in 312, one
is a tiny patch condemned for a future highway interchange that has no
phones, but the other two will be partly in 312 but mostly in 708.
Thus 708 will be in three pieces. The mess could have been avoided by
keeping in 312 five of the prefixes that are going into 708 (covering
four suburbs), and I don't know whether this lame-brained notion was
IBT's or Bellcore's idea, but as with the way IBT is handling
directory assistance, the people at Centel just shake their heads and
sigh. I live a block's walk from each of these two extra borders
between the codes and a half mile from the outer perimeter of Chicago
(where the bulk of 708 begins); if anyone will be in the area and
wants a tour of places where adjacent houses or stores will be an
eleven-digit call apart or where it will require an eleven-digit call
to reach the police or fire department, let me know. Included will be
two shopping plazas in Harwood Heights that have stores in alternating
area codes. I do know of one business in Chicago that realized they'd
been assigned a Niles prefix and howled at IBT about it; they now have
a new number and will stay in 312 with their neighbors. I hope they
are making IBT pay for their new stationery, new advertising, and
notice to existing customers.
One curiosity is that as a Centel customer in Chicago I can dial two
area code 708 numbers with three digits: 411 reaches a Des Plaines
number (probably on the 699 or 391 prefix) and 611 reaches (708)
698-9955 in Park Ridge. Likewise, Illinois Bell's area code 708
customers will dial 611 and reach (312) 509-2510 [at least from
suburbs along the northern edge and the northern part of the western
edge of Chicago].
David W. Tamkin dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us
{attctc,netsys}!jolnet!dattier P. O. Box 813 Rosemont, Illinois
60018-0813 (708) 518-6769 (312) 693-0591 BIX: dattier GEnie:
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