Fortunately the company I worked for in the Chicago suburbs (708 area
> code) had one line with a 312 area code. I think the owner kept one
> line with a 312 number so that our downtown Chicago customers could
> call our suburban offices without paying a metered rate. That single
> 312 phone number was a lifesaver for the company during the outage.
> There was a special term for that line with the out-of-area code. > Does anyone know?
It's known as an FX line, or Foreign Exchange. I remember when I lived in North Providence and got stuck with a Pawtucket rate center. I was wracking up some serious toll charges to hit a BBS in East Greenwich, RI. So I finally broke down and got an FX for the other exchange in North Providence that was part of the Providence rate center.