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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxj!aluxz!mhuxi!cbosgd!mark
From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Please Leave Only Your Phone Number Please
Message-ID: <138@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 24-Jul-83 00:33:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.138
Posted: Sun Jul 24 00:33:24 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Jul-83 07:14:59 EDT
References: <319@houxt.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Columbus
Lines: 32

With respect to having to dial 1 from some places and not others:

This is a good example of the "phone company mentality", in that
you have to tell the machinery how to route your call through
the various phone networks.  This is as opposed to the "post office
mentality" where you tell them the geographic location (well, usually)
of the addressee and it figured out how to get there.  If you think
it's annoying for a person to delete a 1 from a published phone number,
put yourself in the position of a person trying to build a box that
calls a given phone no matter what kind of phone line it's connected to.
Right now it can't be done - the box doesn't know local dialing conventions,
whether to include the area code, whether to dial 1 or 9 or 8, and if
the box will be installed overseas, it's hopeless.  Notice that the
phone company invented UUCP, somebody else invented the ARPANET.

One of my pet peeves is that people send me their L.sys lines with
	foovax Any ACU 1200	1-8005551212 login uucp ssword foo
assuming that 1- is appropriate for me.  It isn't - 9-1 is.  Why
don't they just say ddd8005551212 and let me fill in the appropriate
expansion for ddd?

It really would be nice if we could advertise a single phone number
that works from any phone in the world.  Let's see now, it would
have to be country code, area code, prefix, and phone number.
The country code for the USA is 1 (look it up if you don't believe me),
so the proper phone number above is, you guessed it, 1-800-555-1212.

(In defense of the 800 commercials - you'd be amazed how many idiots
dial the number exactly as announced without adding 1's or anything.
I believe that almost everywhere in the USA requires the 1 now, and
the plan is that the few non-1 areas will eventually require it.
New York and Los Angeles require 1 now, right?  What areas are left?)