Re: A Question About 'Dial 1' in USA Calling

wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@telecom-digest.org:

Dan Popescu wrote:
>> I wanna ask you a question if that's OK. First I should tell you that
>> I live in Europe. It's not clear to me: when you make an interstate
>> call within the US is it necessary to dial 1 before the area code and
>> number or can you dial just area code + number?
>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The general rule is we have to dial
>> '1' between any two area codes in any of those places.
> Not necessarily. Rules vary from place to place depending on legacy
> dialing procedures and contemporary needs. Some places need to dial
> only seven digits even when crossing an area code boundary. Other
> places must dial ten digits even within their own area code. It's > very complicated.

There are still places where you can dial 7d and it goes to another area code? Wow.

I believe today's system is set up so that you can dial 1+area
> code+7digits regardless of where you're calling and if the area code > is needed or not.

That depends on where you are. Each state PUC seems to set different rules about how these things work for landlines. Mobile phones are an entirely different matter, and thankfully they seem to be more consistent.

My region, for example, has 10 digit dialing. If I call a different
> area code (overlay or adjacent) within my region, whether it is a toll
> call or not, I do not need the "1". If I go outside the region I do > need the 1.

In my state, all toll calls begin with "1" and all non-toll calls do not. If you get it wrong (either way), you get a recording telling you to add/remove the "1". All areas with more than one area code have mandatory 10-digit dialing even within the same area code.

In other states, you may need a "1" to dial another area code even if it's not toll, and non-toll calls may be either 7 or 10 digits.

It appears that dialing "1" plus 7 digits to make a toll call within your own area code went out of use in the mid 90s when the "new" area codes were opened up, but I wouldn't be surprised if some corner of the US still had it. There are still places with 4- and 5-digit local dialing, too.

There's a artificially defined border known as the LATA, which
> separates local from toll calls; that is, calls handled by the local
> telephone company vs. calls handled by a "long distance" company.
> Anyway, some area codes span multiple LATAs. That is, one can dial
> only seven digits yet be charged for a long distance call. Other area
> codes are very small or even overlays for the same region.

Local calling regions are usually much, much smaller than a LATA. Most of the US can only dial neighboring exchanges for free. Even large cities like Chicago and Detroit don't have local calling across town, though a few others do. That's mostly a state PUC issue.

There's also a distinction between interstate, intrastate, and intra-LATA toll calls; the first is always carried by an IXC and the third is always carried by the LEC, but who carries the second seems to vary.

The concept of a "toll alert" is somewhat obsolete because of the
> great variety of billing plans. I have national unlimited, so
> theorectically I don't need the 1 at all. But obviously some people
> have a la carte plans.

It gets worse ... The toll alert here actually varies depending on your billing plan with the LEC. For instance, I can order regular service (which only has 5 exchanges local), metro service (the entire city is local), extended service (the entire LATA is local), and statewide service (the entire state is local). A call that requires a "1" with one billing plan may only work without a "1" in another billing plan. Sheesh.

Stephen Sprunk "Stupid people surround themselves with smart CCIE #3723 people. Smart people surround themselves with K5SSS smart people who disagree with them." --Aaron Sorkin

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is why my original response in this thread included the operative phrase 'the _general rule_ is'. I personally was thinking more of cellular phones versus landline phones when originating calls, but calls from landline phones in different LATAs/zones/etc also can be applied. While frequently omitting the area code, the obligitory '1' at the start, etc does make a difference, and gives various undesired results (on a cell phone for example)I have never yet seen a case where a person who always went to the effort of punching in the fully qualified eleven digits ('1' plus AC plus 7 D) ever went wrong with a cellular phone. The trouble is, we are lazy; why do eleven digits if we can get by with ten, why do ten if we can get by with seven, etc? I am _very_ fortunate that here in my area of s.e. Kansas (a/c 620) on my 620 Cingular Wireless cellphone I can do seven digits for everything in the area, which is pretty vast, east from Missouri and west to Colorado. NOT on my landline, mind you, but on my cell phone. Anywhere else requires the area code first, but I never have use a '1' in any case, just A/C plus 7 D.

But here is an odd one: my GAIT phone, which I use now and then, does okay out on the far west side of town, near Walmart, but the newer totally GSM phone absolutely insists it wants 620 plus 331 whatever out there. Over here around my house, 7-D is just fine. Now I should mention the tiny amount of calling on the cell phone I do: I call my keepers (if I am not at home but need to speak to/see them), the taxi- cab driver to come and get me to go wherever, the store I want to get something from, etc. Every call I make is 331-something, now and then a 332 number. It really roasts me to get out by Walmart (I do not usually like to go to Walmart; but I do to the Dollar General store in that mall and my hair dresser is by there also); Jeff (cab driver) drops me off, I putter around and come back home in an hour or so. I go to call the cab to come back (331-6019), call won't go through. I wind up getting confused and annoyed (by product of my brain aneurysm) my fingers cannot hit the right keys and I sit there with re-order after re-order, literally struggling trying to figure out why _my_ phone keeps refusing my requests.("We do not recognize you as an authorized user.") _Then_ I remember what Cingular told me to do: recycle the phone entirely; dial _ten_ digits and see if that works. Well, of course it does. And soon, I see the welcome sight of Jeff and his cab pulling up, loading my shopping results in the back seat or the trunk, getting me in the front seat next to him, etc. Cingular insists: dial whatever as _ten_ digits, not as seven, even though 'some of our towers around your area work wirh seven, the one [out where you were at, they know nothing about our town naturally] apparently does not allow seven digits.' Well, I scream at the Cingular lady, my Vonage phone allows seven digits anywhere in 620, why doesn't yours? My Prairie Stream landline phone does also, except that they insist on 1-411 for Directory ("cause SBC makes us to it that way" and they [SBC] outsources their Directory service to somewhere in India where the people have not learned the difference betweeen Independence, Iowa, Missouri [or only if you scream at them also, the one in Kansas].

So to our original question-asker my now elaborated response would be, 'dial ten digits and you won't go wrong. Dial a leading '1' if telco tells you to do so.' The phone system here in the USA is a frightful hodge podge of schemes developed over the years with little or no effort to keep it simple or make it understandable to everyone. PAT]