covert%covert.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (John R. Covert) (08/06/88)
>I posted an article concerning the 809 area code some weeks ago with >no response. So here it is again: > >As far as I know several Caribbean islands belong to the North-American >telephone system (U.S.A., Canada; country code: +1) having the area >code 809. Therefore, the international prefix for that region should >be +1 809. From West Germany that's the correct code, indeed. However, >here in Switzerland the code is +500 809. +1 809 doesn't work from here >neither is there success with +500 809 from West Germany. There already were several responses to your posting; some people pointed out that +500 is already assigned to the Falkland Islands. Maybe the Swiss P.T.T. is betting on there not being direct dialling to the Falklands any time soon. But the real question is WHY? I made some test calls from Geneva to various Caribbean points, and I think I have the answer. Consider the following theory: >From Switzerland, there are two rates for calls to different parts of area code 809. A lower rate applies to those places which have an economic affinity to the U.S. than to those place which have an economic affinity to the U.K. Charge pulses are applied to the customer's meter by the local central office. In all other cases, the correct charge can be determined by examination of only the first four digits after the access code "00". This allows the local exchange to apply a different rate for the mainland U.S. than for Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii, based on 00 1 NPA. However, to determine which rate is to apply for the Caribbean, the local office would have to examine seven digits: 00 1 NPA NXX, something most are not capable of. Thus 00 1 809 results in one rate, and 00 500 809 results in another. The international office is capable of full examination of the digits after 809, necessary for proper routing, and is capable of blocking calls to those parts of 809 that must be dialled with 500 to get the proper rate. /john