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From: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: Re: Phone numbers
Message-ID: <457@amdcad.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 31-Dec-84 00:03:41 EST
Article-I.D.: amdcad.457
Posted: Mon Dec 31 00:03:41 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Dec-84 07:34:59 EST
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> 	In some areas of the US, it is necessary to have numbers 
> of the form 1 (nnn) nnn-nnnn.  In others it is an error to do that.

In some areas of the US, it is necessary to dial 408 xxx-xxxx to
reach me. (Kansas, for example) In others it is an error to do that.
In San Jose, California, for example, you have to leave out the 408.

> There is no way of knowing who needs what here.

Ok, enough sarcasm. What our overseas friends seem to mistakenly
be assuming is that Americans know that their country code is 1. 
See, we don't have enough area codes to be unique over the world so 
when you deal with other countries you have to specify a country code too.
Egypt has a country code of 20, Nigeria 234, South Africa 27, etc.
Since we invented the scheme, we have a country code of 1.
(I think for these purposes the US and Canada are considered together.)

The Phone Company (or at least, Pacific Telephone/Bell) has done
a good job of concealing this information so it is not surprising
that many Americans don't understand this issue.

I think the fact that we also use 1 xxx xxx xxxx to distinguish
area codes from central offices prefixes was cleverly designed in
but someone in fa.telecom could probably give a better exposition.
-- 
 AMD assumes no responsibility for anything I may say here.

 Phil Ngai (408) 749-5790
 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil
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