Re: Local 10-digit dialing [Telecom]

Charles Gray wrote:
>> At American Airlines we used the "1+" as a discriminator in our dial >> plan to prevent LD calls via the PSTN - we had our own private >> network. When they made the "1+" mean "ten digits follows" instead >> of "toll call" we had to adopt different methods of controlling toll >> calls. > At your facilities in California and several other states, 1+ never > meant toll, and in fact 1+ was only required on out-of-area calls when > places outside of L.A. get N0X/N1X prefixes. In places like Texas, 1+ > still doesn't mean "ten digits follows," it still means "toll call," > although you also have to dial the full 10D. For local calls that > require the area code, you must dial *only* 10D, not 1+10D.

Ummm... never say never!

He didn't say from WHERE in California nor at which point in time WHEN their American Airlines phone system was using 1+ for toll. Note too that he says "when they made the 1+ mean ten-digits follows instead of toll", which implies that there *WAS* a time at least from HIS location in California where 1+ *DID* mean "toll".

And YES HE IS RIGHT!

Except for the SAMA ("Step" AMA) systems of Pacific Telephone (Bell) in the Los Angeles Metro area (I don't know offhand about San Diego) where prior to N0X and N1X office codes of the early 1970s there was NO use of a 1+, the SXS areas of California *DID* use 1+ for toll! And if there was DDD from these SXS areas in California in the later 1950s, it was

112+. I have seen the Pacific Tel and General Tel ads in pdf scans of old newspaper microfilm through my subscription to NewspaperArchive.com and 112+, later 1+, for toll (1+7D home NPA, 1+10D different NPA) is indicated in the DDD instructions in the Pacific and General DDD ads in those newspapers of the later 1950s and 1960s.

The SAMA areas such as Pacific Tel in Los Angeles Metro (I do NOT know about General Tel's SATT in southern CA though) used "straight" 7D/10D, later 1+ for 10D when N0X and N1X office codes came about. The same applies to originating from the Panel and #1XB areas of the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area including San Jose. I *THINK* that 408 (at least the legacy #1XB areas of San Jose) hadn't yet introduced N0X and N1X office codes in their 408 NPA by 1995 when the NANP as a "whole" introdued NNX area codes, so it was as late as 1993/94 when San Jose changed from "straight" 10D to 1+10D for out-of-area code calls without ever having a difference between local or toll.

(I seem to remember John Higdon posting some years back that San Jose still was dialing "straight" 10D for any calls outside of 408 as late as 1993/94, when the 1+ was finally introduced/required with forthcoming NNX area codes. Apparantly 408 didn't introduce N0X/N1X office codes until around the same time as the NANP introduced NNX area codes).

The same situation applied to Illinois and New York state, and other states where it isn't always clear as to lack of 1+ means non-toll vs.

1+ REQUIRED for (10D) toll. Back in the "old" days, SXS areas used 1+ for toll, both 1+7D and 1+10D, while historically Panel and #1XB areas did NOT use 1+ at all, until N0X and N1X office codes (or NNX area codes in 1995, whichever came first), and the 1+ from those Panel and #1XB areas only meant "ten digits will follow".

One of Carl Moore's area code history files in the Archives gives some chronological development as to when dialing changed in various states or NPAs, as N0X and N1X office codes OR NANP-wide NNX area codes, were introduced:

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Bellcore's NANPA from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s issued "Information Letters" on individual changes in dialing due to N0X/N1X office codes introduced in the "home" NPA, or NNX area codes introduced in the NANP for 1995.

Some areas in California changed to 1+ only for 10D in the 1980s-era as "interchageable" office codes were first introduced in that home area code -- there apparantly was no more SXS in that NPA. But the remainder of California which still used 1+ for toll changed to 1+ ONLY for 10D (and ALWAYS for 10D) by 1993 in preparation for 1995's new NNX area codes.

We tend to generalize our recollections based on recent developments, but the history of the NANP is QUITE a "hodge-podge" of DIFFERENT dialing procedures used in the same states and even in the same metro areas! at various times during the (60+ year) history of the NANP.

A.B.