Posted by Jerry Stuckle on 04/13/06 22:42

Tim Streater wrote:
> In article <DYGdncLwGPLF-6PZRVn-rw@comcast.com>,
> Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
>>Richard Levasseur wrote:
>>
>>>Are you sure about that? Is 1 not the US/CA country code? I can dail
>>>full 10 digit numbers (1xxxyyyzzzz) without any problem in the US
>>>
>>
>>Richard,
>>
>>That's 11 digits :-)
>>
>>And it's general practice in the U.S. to leave the '1' off the phone number.
>
>
> I take it you mean, when saying that, the number as written down. I'm
> not sure I agree. When I lived there I kept seeing and hearing ads that
> said as it might be "Call one-eight-hundred .... now for your ...".
>
> -- tim

Tim,

Yes, when you tell someone to call a long distance number, you generally say
"one eight hundred". However, in forms it's generally not used.

For instance - here in the MD side of Washington, DC, I can call anyone in the
202 area code as a local call. I can also call some of the 301, 240 and 703
area codes as local, while others are long distance. I need to dial 1 for those
which are long distance, but do not dial 1 for those which are local.

Someone on the Virginia side of DC has a different combination, and those in DC
a still different one. Do you dial 1 or not?

So it has become the general procedure to document numbers without the '1' and
let the dialer figure out whether they need to dial '1' or not. The only
exception (which is what I think you're referring to) is free area codes such as
800, 877, 866, etc., which are always long distance. Then you'll hear on the TV
and radio "Dial one-eight-hundred...".


--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================

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