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Vonage maryjane -
(warning, totally irrelevant but hopefully interesting history
maryjane -
(warning, totally irrelevant but hopefully interesting history lesson on phone switching ahead). ;)
Generally, the need for 11-digit dialing and long distance are separate issues, though at one time they used to be associated, and a lot of people think they still are.
In Maine, I use 7 digits to call everyone in the state. However, (assuming I wasn't using Vonage, of course!), local calling areas tend to be very small, and there literally is no way to know if a call is local or long distance by how you dial the number.
Way back when, under New England Telephone, you had to dial 7 digits for local, 8 ("1" + 7 digits) for in-state long distance, and 11 for out of state. In many towns, you were also allowed to use 4-digit dialing. If your local exchange prefix matched someone else's, you just dialed the last 4 digits of the phone number.
Dialing 11 digits for an in-state long distance call got you an error message. Dialing 7 digits for in-state long distance got you an error message. Putting a "1" in front of a local call got you an error message. But at least you ALWAYS knew when you were paying long distance.
As they ran out of room in local exchanges, they had to eliminate 4-digit dialing, town by town, since "3431" might match another town's new exchange "343" and the switch would get confused.
NYNEX took over, and they told everyone that local calls were seven digits, and toll calls were 11 digits, both in and out of state. There was a big flap about that, since a lot of companies that had already customized their dialing systems for Maine's clumsy system now had to reprogram their dialers to handle the "207" area code. Plus a lot of people had gotten used to 8 digit dialing.
The change was needed, though, because we were running out of local exchanges again, and a local exchange of "619-xxxx" might match an area code "619-xxx-xxxx" so again the switch wouldn't know how to route the call based on your dialing "1-619"
Verizon came in during the ten years I've been out of state, and now you use seven or eleven digit dialing (your choice) for the entire state and eleven digit dialing for everywhere else. If you are on a border town with New Hampshire, you might very well call eleven digits and not pay long distance. But if you call in-state using seven digits, it may be a toll call.
You can also opt to use 11-digit dialing for any local calls and it won't cost you a toll.
It's easier to figure out how to call someone now. But you have to look up local exchanges in your phone book to know in advance whether it will cost you money or not.
Read The Full Thread: Potential Newby With Question:
• Was close to purchasing Vanage equipment at local store (great rebates right
• Well, first, this is not how it is supposed to work, and it most certainly is not
• When I first started using Vonage certian people couldn't reach me unless dialing
• I think the Simpsons said it best:
"It's been proven that a monkey can be trained
• I don't think it was irrevelant in the least NateHoy. :wink:
was a comment
• Just to add some more complication, here in central Florida all local dialing
• In Eastern PA, local calls are 11 digit for POTS, while Vonage is 10 digit (less
• Does Vonage actually care? Will it screw up if you use the 1?
• Nope, I just tried it and using the 1 works too.
NateHoy posted "maryjane -
(warning, totally irrelevant but hopefully interesting history" on 01/19/2006 |
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