XXX-XXX-XXXX
October 15, 2002
I think the whole world needs to use 10-digit dialing. The 248 area code almost got it right, as you need full the full 10 digits for local calls, but you still need to dial a 1 for inter-lata and interstate long distance. Why can’t the phone companies just tell people to suck it up and use full 10-digit dialing (without a +1, ever) for all calls everywhere? Just like cell phones, it’d work great. The only reason I can think of is that then people won’t know precisely if a call is long distance or not, but I’m sure an automated “Enter the number you want to call and we’ll tell you the rate” service could be set up.
you can call any operater and tey will tell you if the area code and number sufix are local or not. =) they can also tell you what city the area code and suffix belong too
Yep… I just mean something automated, to cut down on phone company costs for providing the service. Once full-out 10 digit dialing is in place…
The 1 is the International Country code for the US. In theory, you shouldn’t have to dial it when calling within the country. I don’t have to from my phone the way it’s set up.
You can always find your local calling area (at least if you have an Ameriwreck phone line) by going to their website, entering your npa/nxx and getting a list of all npa/nxx’s that are local to you.
Local toll (Intra-LATA) calling area is the LATA you live in. Southeastern Detroit is LATA 340: 248, 313, 734, 810, 586 area codes plus any splits I missed. There are a few small exceptions to that list… but it’s generally pretty accurate.
Give it time… it will become mandatory.
Hrmm…we dial 1 way up here in Canada too (for long distance) ….does that mean we actually are part of the US?
Actually, I think Canada and the US are the same country code. Their phone systems are essentially identical, same area code system, same everything.
Nope. It just means you’re not special enough to get your own country code. ;P
Seriously… it’s because all of North America except Mexico is part of the North American numbering plan. The Carribean and Puerto Rico dial 1 too.
Don’t ask me WHY they did it that way, I haven’t a clue… but the 1 is basically the country code and the area code is basically like a city code.
Abandon phones all together and lets all go back to the long lost art of letter writing. It kept the world at a slow and managable pace.
Luddite. < grin >
But anyway, the telephone is simply a technological innovation, just like written word is. Just like letters are. If people were to regress to the time of letters, but no telephone, you could just as easily argue that we should do away with letters and focus solely on conversation, as letters make communication happen quicker than spoken word alone.
It’s all a vicious circle, but it’s part of the acceptance of technology in all it’s forms.
10 digit dialing makes the DC Area great!
but see, if the phone company let you use 10-digit dialing (even if just for intra-state calls, like AZ does), then they wouldn’t be able to rape you for long distance.
personally, i just haven’t seen the point of land-lines in a while. i mean, for the relatively the same price as a land-line (w/o long distance!) you can have a cell phone. and it’s portable, too. and has manymanymany other features that a land-line could never have, as well.
besides, we couldn’t have interstate 10-digit dialing because some states have duplicate area codes (as far as i remember). not that the duplicates couldn’t be eliminated, but you know ppl and their “changing area codes”-thing. just think of The Simpsons.
Sadly, even with 10 digit dialing your local phone company can rape you on calls. Calls aren’t routed as local vs. long distance based on dialing an area code on the call – rather they are based on your local calling area. When you make a phone call from your local telephone line, the system compares your call to their database of what is local for you before completing the call. If it’s a local call, it routes over local call paths. IF it’s a long distance (or local toll) call, it routes out to the carrier you have chosen. All long distance carriers have a 4 digit identifier called a CIC that gets placed on your line so that a long distance call can be sent via the public telephone network to that carrier for call termination. You can choose your local carrier for your local toll as well. I do not believe your local carrier can ever handle your long distance as well (though SBC/Ameritech has been trying to get that right) but my telecommunications knowledge is all based on Michigan laws.
States don’t have duplicated area codes with the exception of areas where the area code lies close to the border of a state so it overlaps into the next state. I think there are a couple of small areas where that has happened.
10 digit dialing actually fixes all routing problems, even when the area code laps state lines. The routing problems we tend to have actually are more often than not results of trying to keep 7 digit dialing around. The few local phone lines we have all require 10 digit dialing.
What companies need to realize is that customers will get used to it. Ours have. We even had a compliment on our 10 digit routing the other day from one of our local customers. They should just get over it and route 10 digits – we’re progressing that way slowly anyhow.
well, considering that we keep having splits in the area codes anyways because of the massive amount of new telephone numbers appearing, i think you’re right about us heading towards 10-digits… i mean, back in the day not as many ppl had telephones so you just used the house address & a 4-digit # (right?)
i just think of the whole “being raped by the phone company” as a michigan phenomenon… i’m sure it happens the same elsewhere, but i only have AZ to compare to, and when i moved there in 95, they only had two area codes in the whole state, 602 & 720, but in 99 they started splitting 602 up, but because everyone around the phoenix area was used to practically half the state being local, they made all the new area codes local 10-digit-dialing.
i understand that they could have made it long-distance 10-digit, or local-toll 10-digit, but i just happen to think that michigan is ridiculous. my grandparents live in a portion of shelby twp, which is in macomb county, but somehow ended up with oakland county’s area code (248). so, if my grandma wants to call my uncle, who lives in macomb twp (about 3 miles away) and has the 810 area code (which is standard for the area), it’s local, but if she wants to call my mother, who lives in new baltimore, but has the same 810 area code, it’s long distance. now, vice versa, if my mother or my uncle want to call my grandmother, it’s long distance.
so, this is why most all of my family has cell phones that we use more often than our “normal phones”, and why there isn’t a land-line where i’m living now.
i don’t know about the whole “same carrier for local & long distance”-thing, though… unable because why? because it’s not allowed, or phone companies don’t provide it… i think that SBC/Ameritech does provide long distance service & local service; is that what you’re saying? although, i don’t know how you mean they’re “trying” to get it right… although, the fact that calling a cell phone from a landline is $.35 p/m kind of supports that.
SBC Ameritech in Michigan specifically is not allowed by the Michigan Public Service Commission or the Federal Communications Commission to provide long distance service to their local customers. I am assuming they are not allowed simply because they would then be 10 times the monopoly they are now. Local carriers are allowed to offer long distance to their customers if they are licensed to do so; both of the telephone companies I have worked for were able to offer long distance service as well as local.
What Ameritech can provide you is long distance and local toll. Local toll is a form of long distance; that is, they are calls with per minute charges associated with them, but because they are a “short range” long distance call, they are referred to as local toll. In Michigan, your local toll calling area is your LATA (which stands for something like Local Area Transport Area… I forget the exact acronym and I’m being too lazy to look it up). Southeastern Michigan’s LATA encompasses 248, 313, 734, 810, and 586 area codes in addition to anything those area codes are splitting into in the near future.
I agree that the concept of local toll calling is a crock of shit – it’s a way for Ameritech to continue to rip their customers off. I personally don’t have a land line, and I have no intention of getting one, unless I decide to get one for a dialup connection. Charging customers $35.00 for a basic telephone line with dialtone is obscene. I don’t know anyone in Michigan who likes Ameritech, but the problem is that there is very little competition.
The carriers who are out there to compete with Ameritech are largely resellers of Ameritech service. Sure, you’re getting a bill from another carrier, but you still have an Ameritech phone line. It sucks.
We do operate our own facilities based network here for our local customers, but that is very expensive to operate. We have equipment colocated in 5 CO’s and the initial build on that was about 2.5 million dollars. That’s in addition to the 3-5 million we’ve spent on our main switching facility. That’s a lot of cash for a small company to come up with for just equipment. Even then we can’t get away from Ameritech entirely because they own all of the copper wiring underground and in the air. We have to connect to that network to get our customers out into the world of telephones. Our only other option would be to run our own copper network, which I don’t even think we could get permission to do, and even if we could it would take more money than I care to calculate to do so.
What really sucks about telecommunications is that there are about 5 ILEC’s left in the whole country. They all suck, they’re all HUGE monopolies, and since us little guys all have to connect to their network they can basically squash virtually all competition from anyone who might want to get out there and offer a cheaper rate.
muhahaha
Re: muhahaha
What is it? I shall call. Give country code, too.
Re: muhahaha
(011) 9685-5999
I need to buy some more won this weekend, though. :¨