DREUBEN@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU (Douglas Scott Reuben) (05/19/88)
I've noticed that when you call a non-working number in 413
(Western Mass), and there is no referral (ie, what the new number is),
the call doesn't seem to 'go' to Mass, rather, it is intercepted at your
local toll-center (?) or whatever handles such a call.
For example, 413-458 is a valid exchange in Western Mass, specifically,
for Williamstown / North Adams. Calls to working numbers in the 413-458
exchange go through fine, as do calls to the AIS system they have there (ie,
when you get the "The number you have reached, 555-1212, is not in service
recording.) Yet some calls just don't go through. A call without an AIS
message which is NOT in service will return a (relatively) local recording
stating "<Alert Tones> We're sorry, your call can not be completed as
dialed. Please check the number, and try your call again. 203-2T". As I am
calling from area code 203 (Connecticut), I hear 203-2T. From New York, I
hear 718-2T, or from California I think it was 707-2T. All these calls were
placed over AT&T.
When I tried it over Sprint (by using the FON Card which I otherwise
never use), I got a local, 'generic' recording in the 413-458 exchange
saying "The number you have reached is no longer in service". IE, via Sprint,
the call went all the way to Williamstown, and I heard a Williamstown recording.
Over AT&T, the recording I heard went only as far as somewhere within
Connecticut, and didn't go up to Williamstown.
Is this an experiment tha AT&T is conducting to save money on calls
that will not go through. IE, instead of having the destination exchange
recording, why not stop the call before it goes over the long distance network,
saving some equipment time and money. I doubt AT&T maitains tables of all
the number that are in or out of service in the 413 area, so I presume my
call did actually get to some piece of equipment in 413, only to be "told"
that there was no referral, and that it could play a generic message for
me on the Connecticut end. ( Perhaps this is some out-of-band signalling
technique, so the call was held on my end until the equipment at the 413
end determined if the call should be sent up to 413 or held back in 203/CT.?)
In any event, I haven't called anywhere else that has a similar system,
so this seems somewhat unique. Any ideas on what this is and / or if my
speculation is correct?
Thanks,
-Doug
DReuben%Eagle.Weslyn@Wesleyan.Bitnet
DReuben@Eagle.Weslyn
[It's a combination of both. 413 toll center talks to the 203 toll center
but the exchange is probably one that doesn't use that particular X000
suffix. Partial-exchanges like these are spread all over Mass, even in 617.
--jsol]