PGW@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU (Paul G. Weiss) (11/04/88)
I am "fortunate" enough to be located in the new area code 508 in Massachusetts. For three months after conversions, calls in the old 617 area code were allowed to go through, but now that the grace period is over, you must dial the new area code. The problem is that we have learned that there are parts of the country that are unable to reach us on the new area code. They get one ring-back and then nothing. We called New England Telephone and then AT&T and got the following story: AT&T told us that the fault lies with the various "baby bells" located throughout the country. Apparently, "turning on" a new area code is an expensive process, and each individual company needs to do it in order to allow their users to reach the area code. AT&T said that it often takes them months to get around to doing it, as they will often wait until they have several new area codes to enable. Can this really be legit? If so, then we need to contact each baby bell to complain that their users can't reach us. This is really awful, as we are a business that lives and dies on the telephone. Any suggestions as to how to approach this. (By the way, I understand that the town of Dover,MA has successfully sued to be placed back in the 617 area code).
ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) (11/10/88)
I don't know, I have enough problems getting the local cellular companies and some of the bogus long distance carriers (notably MCI) to route calls to my "214" exchange. Nobody said exchances would follow NNX forever. -Ron