gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) (08/17/89)
Taconic Tel not only has the last nickel payphone, they also have post-payment phones (at least in certain areas). I was up in Copake, NY about a year ago and I had a good look at their payphones. They were certainly telco provided. They looked a little like "Charge-A-Call" phones, but they were brown, and were rotary. There was a large sign saying "Do not deposit nickel until party answers -- No money will be returned." The transmitter was, of course, kept muted until you deposited your coins. Speaking of Taconic....I remember one fact distinctly. They're using some remarkably old equipment. I visited a friend in Hillsdale, NY and made a long-distance call. I dialed 1+NPA+#, and nothing happened. Okay, I figured, maybe I didn't need the 1. So I tried NPA+# and sure enough, the thing just sat there. It turned out that you had to dial 11+NPA+#. I checked it in the Taconic phone book, and it described it as "1 + DDD Code + Area Code + #" I always thought that the initial "1" was the DDD code in itself. Why on earth would the exchange want TWO of them? Another interesting fact about that exchange is that it took FOREVER for calls to process...even local ones. The phone was true DTMF, so I suspect that the switch was SxS with a Touchtone front-end. Any comments, folks? -G
johnl@uunet.uu.net (John R. Levine) (08/19/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0305m02@vector.dallas.tx.us> gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia. edu (Gabe M Wiener) writes: >It turned out that you had to dial 11+NPA+#. I checked it in >the Taconic phone book, and it described it as "1 + DDD Code + Area Code + #" >I always thought that the initial "1" was the DDD code in itself. Why on >earth would the exchange want TWO of them? The second "1" is what in some parts is called a circle digit. Different parties on the same part line have different circle digits to identify who is making the call. I guess it's too hard to tell the exchange that party lines dial differently from private lines, so all private lines have a circle digit of 1. AT&T never seemed to take to circle digits, they always had an operator cut in and ask for the number you were calling from. -- John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 {ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl, johnl@ima.isc.com, Levine@YALE.something Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe