Seven-Digit Cross-NPA Dialing
Neal McLain
In Volume 17 Issue 316, Stan Schwartz <sta...@yahoo.com> asked:
> From the BellSouth Corporate web site, this is in conjunction
> with the upcoming North Carolina NPA splits. Aren't "protected
> exchanges" such as these what contribute to chewing up existing
> NPA's??
Not necessarily: a cross-NPA-boundary NXX can be "protected" in one
part of an NPA and re-used elsewhere within the same NPA if two
conditions exist: (a) the local dialing plan requires 1+NPA+ for
intra-NPA long-distance, and (b) the two locations are separated by a
distance which requires long distance dialing to call from one to the
other.
An example. Up here in the frozen Midwest, we have the following
situation:
608-326-xxxx Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on the east bank
of the Mississippi River, and at the western
edge of 608.
319-873-xxxx McGregor, Iowa, on the west bank of the
Mississippi River, right across from Prairie
du Chien.
608-873-xxxx Stoughton, Wisconsin, over on the eastern
side of 608, almost 100 miles from Prairie du
Chien.
From Prairie du Chien, a caller dials:
873-xxxx to reach McGregor: a cross-NPA local call which
can be dialed as 7 digits.
1-608-873-xxxx to reach Stoughton: an intra-NPA long
distance which must be dialed as 11 digits.
So in this case, 873 is "protected" within the Prairie du Chien
local calling area, but it's still used elsewhere within 608. The
fact that it's protected does not, in and of itself, prevent its
use elsewhere within the NPA.
This same technique can be used in North Carolina because North
Carolina already requires 1+NPA+ for intra-NPA long distance.
Neal McLain nmc...@compuserve.com
Bill Levant
> From Prairie du Chien [which is in NPA 608], a caller dials:
> 873-xxxx to reach McGregor: a cross-NPA local call which
> can be dialed as 7 digits.
> 1-608-873-xxxx to reach Stoughton: an intra-NPA long
> distance which must be dialed as 11 digits.
No wonder no one knows how to dial calls any more. I bet the folks in
McGregor get a fair number of wrong number calls intended for Stoughton.
Much has been written here in recent weeks about toll-alerting (1+
*required* on toll calls), permissive 1+ dialing (1+ *always* works,
even on a cross-NPA local call, which can be dialed as just ten
digits), anal-retentive toll alerting (1+ will not work on a cross-NPA
local call; you can't dial 1+ unless you "mean it") and other similar
topics, but this is a number IN YOUR OWN AREA CODE that you can't
reach EXCEPT with 1+ ten digits, and if you dial it as seven digits it
is assumed that you meant to make a cross-NPA call? That's insane.
The only thing I've ever seen like it was the arrangement in
Washington DC some years ago (also insane) where all of 202, and
nearby parts of 301 (Maryland) and 703 (Virginia) were all
seven-digits to each other. For example:
From 301-571-XXXX (Hyattsville) to 202-466-XXXX (Washington) - seven digits
From 301-571-XXXX to 301-466-XXXX (at the time, Baltimore) - 1+ ten digits
In order to make this work, NNX codes assigned to 202 could not be
reused in the "metro" portions of 301 *or* 703, and an NNX code
assigned in the "metro" portion of *either* 301 or 703 could not be
reused in the "metro" portion of the *other* NPA, nor in 202 AT ALL.
Needless to say, a major waste of numbers. I think this scheme
finally collapsed.
Before the interchangeable NXX's came into existence, the one,
immutable rule of dialing (at least here in what used to be 215-land)
was YOU NEVER DIAL YOUR OWN AREA CODE.
When 1+ seven digits became unworkable (because of "interchangeable"
NXX's), Bell Atlunchtic went to seven digits anywhere in the area
code, and for operator-assisted or -handled calls, 0 plus 215 and
seven digits. You didn't dial "215" on any station-to-station call
anywhere in this area code. You still don't.
There always used to be a few places around here where they had
cross-NPA local calling back in the days before area code boundaries
started being measured in feet, instead of miles. New Hope, PA (215)
to Trenton, NJ (609) was one; the Trenton NNX's were "protected" in
215, and vice-versa; the New Hopers dialed Trenton with seven digits
only.
I think they still have local calling between New Hope (still 215) and
Trenton (still 609, at least this week), but now the Trenton NNX's
have been assigned in 215, and New Hope dials ten digits (whether 1+
is either permitted or required, I dunno) to call Trenton.
Bill
Linc Madison
In article <telecom1...@telecom-digest.org>, Neal McLain
<nmc...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> In Volume 17 Issue 316, Stan Schwartz <sta...@yahoo.com> asked:
>> From the BellSouth Corporate web site, this is in conjunction
>> with the upcoming North Carolina NPA splits. Aren't "protected
>> exchanges" such as these what contribute to chewing up existing
>> NPA's??
> Not necessarily: a cross-NPA-boundary NXX can be "protected" in one
> part of an NPA and re-used elsewhere within the same NPA if two
> conditions exist: (a) the local dialing plan requires 1+NPA+ for
> intra-NPA long-distance, and (b) the two locations are separated by a
> distance which requires long distance dialing to call from one to the
> other.
> An example. Up here in the frozen Midwest, we have the following
> situation:
> 608-326-xxxx Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
> 319-873-xxxx McGregor, Iowa -- local to Prairie du Chien
> 608-873-xxxx Stoughton, Wisconsin -- long distance from P.d.C.
> From Prairie du Chien, a caller dials:
> 873-xxxx to reach McGregor
> 1-608-873-xxxx to reach Stoughton
> So in this case, 873 is "protected" within the Prairie du Chien
> local calling area, but it's still used elsewhere within 608. The
> fact that it's protected does not, in and of itself, prevent its
> use elsewhere within the NPA.
True. However, this situation has a high potential for confusion.
Suppose I call Aunt Millie in Prairie du Chien and ask her for the
number of her local widget dealer. She looks on her phone list and
tells me "Oh, it's Acme Widgets at 873-xxxx," and doesn't think to
tell me it's on the other side of the river. I know that Aunt Millie
is in 608, so I dial 1-608-873-xxxx and expect to reach Acme Widgets.
It also must wreak havoc with computer dialing lists (yet another
reason that 1-NPA-NXX-XXXX must be allowed permissively on all calls
irrespective of local/toll and irrespective of NPA).
> This same technique can be used in North Carolina because North
> Carolina already requires 1+NPA+ for intra-NPA long distance.
The better solution, IMNSHO, is to require NPA+7D (or 1+NPA+7D in
areas that don't use 1+ as a toll indicator) for FNPA local calls in
such situations. The old seven-digit FNPA local arrangement should
only be used in cases where both NPAs are sufficiently free to allow
the affected exchanges to be *fully* protected.
** Do not send me unsolicited commercial e-mail spam of any kind **
Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * Telecom@LincMad-com
URL:< http://www.lincmad.com > * North American Area Codes & Splits
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