telecom@bu-cs.BU.EDU (TELECOM Moderator) (01/15/89)
You may wish to add a few additional codes to the list given above. These three digit codes are also in use, although they are not, strictly speaking, 'area codes'. They are not in the chart above since I thought some of you may not want them there. If you do, then edit them in. 200 Local testing, used by many telcos. 410 Western Union Telegraph Company - Northeastern USA 510 Western Union Telegraph Company - Eastern USA 610 Western Union Telegraph Company - Canada 700 Value Added Information Services, per individual OCC 710 Western Union Telegraph Company - Southern USA 800 In-WATS 'toll free' calling 810 Western Union Telegraph Company - Mexico 900 Mass Calling Information/Value Added Services 909 Telenet Communications Corp. Data Network 910 Western Union Telegraph Company - Western USA (from Chicago westward) The thing with WUTCO is, many years ago the old Bell System operated Teletype machines; what they called the TWX (or [T]ype[W]riter E[X]change. The TWX machines had their own switches, located in existing telephone central offices, but on separate equipment. About twenty years ago, a court ruling required Bell to sell its TWX service to Western Union, in a suit brought by WUTCO against AT&T. WUTCO operated the system as TWX for many years, and in the past five years has changed the name to Telex II. The Western Union central offices for Telex I (the original telex network) have always been in WUTCO offices. The central offices for Telex II (formerly AT&T's TWX) are still in Bell central offices, although they now belong to WUTCO. Is that clear? Telenet's data network uses conventional area code numbering in the way its switches route calls. Again, there is a lot of telco central office equipment tied up with hardwired connectons between Telenet and its customers who have direct connect PADS, etc. Telenet also has gateways into telex and TWX (or Telex II). 'Area Code' 909 is assigned for billing purposes to the activities of Telenet. If you use the Telenet network, via indials or whatever, that any connection of the form @C 909xxx is a connection to the Telenet headquarters offices in Reston, VA. So these codes 410,510,610,710,810 and 909 are occupied and recognized by the network for purposes other than voice. You cannot dial into them from the voice network, but they are none the less assigned. Likewise, AUTOVON, the federal government telephone network, is largely accomodated through the Bell central offices in every city with federal government facilities. This part of the overall network was grouped together under 300 at one time. I am not sure of the code now. No one *actually dials* 300-anything, but the number relates to that function. Calling from the public switched network to AUTOVON is largely transparent. In calling to a federal office in Our Nation's Capitol for instance, we can generally dial 202-public-last four *or* we can dial 202-autovon-last four and the call will go through. That is because autovon and 202 prefixes are not overlapped or duplicated in many areas. When the present unassigned area codes of the conventional format have all been used, sometime around 1992-1995, area codes 210,211,310,311,400,500,511, 600,711 and 811 will be next in line for assignment. Whether or not you want to include these special numbers in the chart given in the earlier message depends on if you want strictly a listing of the *dialable* codes used by the voice network at present, or if you want to include all *assgined* codes. And while 700-800-900 are not strictly speaking area codes, my belief is they definitly should be added to the list.
alh@cbnews.ATT.COM (01/20/89)
Sometime ago I read about a number that you could call to determine the long distance carrier that you had assigned to your telephone service. When this number was called you received a voice message indicating the carrier. Would someone post the number again. Thanks. Does anyone know an easy way of getting an update on the tariff filings filed by the various long distance and local offices ? An address, database, telephone number, etc. would be appreciated. Thanks in advance Al Housel AT&T Bell Laboratories
EPSCOTT%CALSTATE.BITNET@buacca.BU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (01/21/89)
In California, 811-XXXX numbers provide toll-free access to
various Pacific Bell offices. My recollection has it that the
tariff allows inter-LATA calls to be handled by PacBell rather
than an IEC (but must terminate within the organization, of
course).
211 is reserved for COPT (Customer-Owned Pay Telephone, CPUC's
version of the FCC's COCOT) refunds.
-=EPS=-