d.m.p.@pro-party.cts.com (Don Peaslee) (06/21/89)
Recently I've seen some discussion on a local BBS concerning the prefix 10288 (or possibly 102880). It was said that adding this sequence to a modem-dialed phone number will "give cleaner lines." Any truth to that, and what the heck IS this number anyway? Don [Moderator's Note: '10288' is the Carrier Access Code for AT&T. At the time the local telephone companies split away from AT&T, the new rules required that every phone subscriber be allowed to choose which long distance carrier was desired. People who did not return 'ballots' to their local phone company were assigned at random to one of several companies handling long distance calls, including AT&T, Sprint and MCI. The long distance carrier of assignment became your 'default' -- or dial one plus -- carrier; meaning that when you dialed a long distance call, your call was automatically handled by the 'default' carrier. You are free to choose whatever carrier you want to handle your long distance calls. If you do not want the carrier assigned to your line to handle your long distance calls, then you must dial a five digit Carrier Access Code *before* dialing the long distance number. For example, MCI might be the carrier assigned to your line. In order to have AT&T handle the call instead of MCI, you must first dial 10288, *then* the long distance number. If AT&T was your 'default' (or assigned) carrier, then to force the call to be handled by Sprint you would dial '10333' before entering the long distance number. Likewise, MCI access is via '10222', and there are numerous other carriers, each with a five digit code of the form '10xxx' which will handle your long distance call if you dial their code first. The message you saw on your local BBS was probably trying to say that the author felt long distance calls with a modem were better handled by AT&T. Since he did not know for sure what default carrier was assigned to the line he was using, he assured himself of AT&T handling of his call by using the '10288' prefix before each call dialed. PT] [FURTHERMORE: In Friday's Digest -- How a radio transmitter religiously irritates Indiana Bell in Hammond, IN; and how complaints by the telco and its subscribers to the FCC have accomplished very little. See you tomorrow! :) PT]