Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Prefix '520' For Los Angeles Radio Stations Message-ID:Date: 23 Sep 89 21:10:31 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: very little Lines: 20 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 400, message 3 of 5 I think the reason that many radio stations have the same special prefix is so that the local telco can do selective blocking when they announce: "..be the 9th caller and win $10,000!". Without special prefixes, an announcement like this could cause major problems when calls from all over start heading for one CO. With the special prefix, an "intelligent network" can allow a limited number of calls from each originating office, and the rest can get locally generated "all trunks busy". Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP [Moderator's Note: Tell me about it! The Chicago Cubs World Series tickets went on sale Friday at 6 PM here, via Ticketron. They did *not* use any special prefix or traffic routing at first. By 6:01 PM, phones all over northern Illinois were sluggish, and experiencing delays in getting dial tone. By about 6:45 Bell employees had managed to re-route some of the traffic, but the mess wasn't totally under control until about 10:00 PM. PT]