covert@covert.dec.enet.com (John Covert) (09/05/89)
From: Greg Monti, NPR, Washington, DC Carl Moore <cmoore@brl.mil> writes: >Greg Monti writes >>Not announced: what will happen to the (relatively few) cases where local >>and extended area calls within an NPA are currently dialed with 1 + 10 digits >>due to code duplication. They'll probably be reduced to 7 digits. >I don't know what this refers to. From Maryland prefixes 621,261,858 you >currently dial 1-301-569-xxxx (NOT a toll call) to reach 569 prefix in Severn, >because 569-xxxx reaches 569 prefix in Springfield, Va.; that local call to >Severn was 1-569-xxxx until the DC area got N0X/N1X prefixes. I guess it'll >take a while to reduce that local call to Severn to 7 digits, because you >don't want people reaching Severn where Springfield was intended. I think that's logical. There will probably have to be a "waiting period" before these details can work themselves out. Much like there is after an Area Code split. >That's the only DC-area case I know of where more than 7 digits are >currently needed on a local call. Not any more. Some of my postings may have gotten waylaid on their way to Telecom Digest (I'm not on this net) so you may not have seen this: Beginning on 9 July 1988, calls between *most* Northern Virginia exchanges and *most* Prince William County exchanges were changed from being Toll Calls to being "Extended Area Calls." [If you want the list of affected Rate Areas, I can probably provide it.] To explain in detail: I believe that "Northern Virginia" means "any exchange in Virginia, whether controlled by Contel or by C&P, which is a local call from Washington, DC." "Prince William County" means "any exchange in Virginia, controlled by Contel, which is inside ('associated with') the Washington LATA and which is not already included in the definition of 'Northern Virginia' above." This includes all of Prince William County plus a small part of Loudoun County (Arcola exchange) and maybe a small part of Stafford County (Stafford exchange). In Virginia, you have the option of ordering six different levels of local phone service, some of which charge for local calls by time of day, distance and time spent talking. Charging this way for Local Calls is called Local Measured Service. "Extended Area" means a special type of Local Call which is ALWAYS billed at Local Measured Service Rates regardless of the type of local calling plan your phone has. From C&P PAY PHONES, Extended Area calls are a flat 25 cents no matter how long you talk, just like all Local Calls are. In most of Virginia, Extended Area Calls are dialed with just seven digits, even if they cross an Area Code boundary. Presumably, this is done to fix the thought in the minds of subscribers that "this is not going to be charged at Long Distance Rates." Indeed, Extended Area Rates are about 80% lower than Intrastate, Intra-LATA Toll Rates for the same distance. This dialing rule cannot apply in the Northern Virginia/Prince William case. Here's why: As Central Office Codes were given out over the years, it was assumed that Prince William would always be a Toll Call from Northern Virginia. So, prefixes which duplicated those used in the Washington Metropolitan portion of Suburban Maryland were allowed to be used in Prince William (and vice versa) since different dialing procedures would apply when calling those two places (Prince William and Maryland) from Northern Virginia. Calling Metro Maryland would be 7 digits. Calling Prince William would be 10 digits (now 11 digits since 1987). Once Extended Area Calling arrived, it was logical to reduce the dialing in both directions between Northern Virginia and Prince William from 11 to 7 digits. This was done in the Prince William to Northern Virginia direction. But it could not be done in the opposite direction due to the code duplications that had been implemented over the years. The then- (and now-) in-effect Washington Metro dialing rule that "all calls between Met exchanges are 7 digits" required that 7 digit dialing to Maryland remain. Therefore, Extended Area Calls from Northern Virginia to Prince William had to remain at 11 digits, even though they were now a form of Local Call. Therefore, there *are* cases besides the Bowie-Glenn Dale foreign exchanges you mention where Local Calls within the same Area Code are now 11 digits. It was done for the same reason in both cases. These, too, should logically be reduced to 7 digits after a suitable waiting period after 7-digit interstate dialing ends. >Your announcement of 1 Oct. 1990 is the first time I have heard a date for >that change. I got that from two sources, the front page of the Washington Post (sometime in May 89) and also from the Arlington (Virginia) Journal. The Journal's version of the story also noted that 10 digit dialing for Local Calls across the Area Code boundaries would become *optional* on 1 January 1990 and *mandatory* on 1 October 1990. Currently, dialing these at 10 digits is *impossible* (blocked by "cannot complete as dialed" recording). >I previously asked in this Digest: Does that mean that Md. & Va. suburbs are >being removed from area code 202? Yes. I cannot think of any way in which prefixes could be duplicated in two Area Codes where those calling from outside the region could dial either Area Code and still get routed correctly. The 202 mapping will have to end. Example: My home phone is in 703-979, also reachable as 202-979. Once a REAL 202-979 prefix is assigned - the whole purpose of this exercise is to allow that - then one would be connected to the new 202-979 when dialing 202-979 and could no longer reach me that way. You could, of course, still reach me by dialing 703-979. Businesses that have cheated for years by painting Area Code 202 on the sides of their trucks when they're really served by 301 or 703 prefixes are going to have to re-paint. Ditto for those who have *no* Area Code in their advertising. That's their problem. By the way, only the Washington Metropolitan portions of 301 and 703 are mapped into Area Code 202. Exchanges slightly further out which are still local to DC but Toll to the far side of 202, were apparently never mapped into 202 and are not reachable that way. There's an element of logic in that since it distinguishes "Washington Metropolitan" from "all other." >(I know there are points elsewhere in Md. where local calls to another area >are available by dialing 7D only. I am not as familiar with area 703 in this >regard.) I think there are several areas, also well outside Washington, but in 703, where local calls to another Area Code are 7 digits. There are a few near Winchester that are local to an exchange in Area 304 in West Virginia. ADDENDUM: By the way, for purposes of determining Local and Extended Calling Areas, Area Code 202 is divided into two Rate Areas: The smaller one is called "Pentagon, Department of Defense." Everything else in 202 is called "Washington." The reason for the splitup: Pentagon prefixes, although in 202, are physically located in Virginia. Pentagon numbers are NOT also mapped into Area Code 703. (In fact, one of the Pentagon prefixes, 202-694, is duplicated as 703-694 in Stuart, a small town in outstate Virginia.) Calls from Washington to Prince William County are Toll. Calls from Pentagon to Prince William County are Extended Area, and are currently dialed with 11 digits. They may change to 10 digits when the dust settles. Calls from Prince William to Pentagon are also Extended Area. I have seen no definitive literature on how those calls are dialed. The general Contel brochure which accompanied the 1988 change said that one would no longer have to dial 1 + 703 for these calls, ignoring the fact that the Pentagon is in 202. I *think* that these calls are now 7 digits, but will change to 10 (not 11) digits after 1 October 1990. Sorry for the delay in replying. I received your 16 August posting on 5 September. Greg Monti, National Public Radio, Washington, DC +1 202 822-2459
cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) (09/07/89)
In Maryland, some prefixes out on the DC-metro-area fringe which have metro- wide local service are nevertheless outside area code 202 as of now. These include 621,261,858 (prefixes which use 1-301-569-xxxx for local call to 301-569). I believe 621,261,858 had 1+7D (now 1+301+7D) instead of 301+7D dialing to long-distance points within Md. Arcola, Va. (Loudoun County) is 703-327. As of now, Herndon (Va.) has 7D local calls to there AND to DC, and 301-327 is in Baltimore city, so there is no 327 in DC or Md. suburbs (the 10D local calls across NPA boundaries will make 327 available in DC). Stafford, Va. is 703-659. I know of 301-659 in Baltimore city. 659 COULD occur in DC (I don't have prefix list with me as I write this). So when Md. and Va. suburbs are removed from area code 202, you will (as is the case with an area code split) be shrinking an existing area code. However, you are not creating a new area code. I believe a way to summarize these changes is that the new 10-digit local calling scheme affects those points within the DC calling area. (Note that I did not have the info about Pentagon <--> Prince William being extended-area local when I came up with that idea.) As far as I know, if you are in Md. and local to Va. (or vice versa), you are also local to DC. (Speaking of the Pentagon: it was written a while back in this Digest that pay phones in it are in the Arlington, Va. exchange; however, I don't know if they are in the Rosslyn-area exchanges or in the Crystal City & National Airport area exchanges.) By the way, time of day is set up as a local call throughout Maryland. Prior to these DC-area changes (i.e. now) you dial 844-1212 to get Baltimore time of day, unless you are in the DC calling area, in which case you dial 844-2525 to get Washington time of day.