cmoore@BRL.MIL (VLD/VMB) (02/04/89)
On direct-dial, you apparently NEVER depend on timeout. But on some cases of 0+, you do: 0 by itself will time out and call your local operator. I noticed 0+number in use, according to the phone book, in 213 area after introduction of N0X/N1X prefixes and before the 213/818 split; only the timeout distinguished between, say, 0-413-xxxx and 0-413-xxx-xxxx (this was just about my very first note to Telecom!), and this is still in use, right? The 2nd area to get N0X/N1X prefixes was New York City (then all in 212), and in late 1980 I noticed that 0+ within 212 now required 0+212+number (area code 212 was printed on the instruction card for this). The explanation received via Telecom was that some of the New York equipment couldn't handle the 0-xxx-xxxx stuff via timeout, so the area code requirement was put in for areacode-wide uniformity.