lindsay@cheviot.UUCP (Lindsay F. Marshall) (01/04/85)
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Well, people seem at long last to be starting to understand the problem!!
We are not interested in the peculiarities and anomalies in how peoples'
local phone systems work - what we want is the equivalent of a path name
from a given point. The +n scheme is relative to a "world root" and so can
be interpreted by ANYONE. I dont see why the rest of the world should suffer
because US phone companies deny their subscribers the correct information :-) !
(Note the convention - +1 xxx xxxxx NOT 1 xxx xxxx which is something
entirely different!!)
An example :
My number is +44 632 329233
in the UK you drop the +44, and add a 0 - 0632 329233
in Newcastle you drop the 44 and the 632 giving 329233
(there are also even more localised variants involving prefixs - these
depend on the exchange involved and are fully documented in a booklet
issued to all subscribers to a particular exchange)
I think that there is some kind of standard governing this which says that
the International prefix is two digits, which explains why the US is +1 !!!
By the way, in response to one item - yes, some of us do use International
Direct Dialling for calls very regularly indeed.
Lindsay F. Marshall - Computing Lab., U of Newcastle upon Tyne
ARPA : lindsay%cheviot%newcastle.mailnet@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
UUCP : <UK>!ukc!cheviot!lindsay