New N.Y. Law Targets Hidden Net LD Tolls

Fri Aug 19 16:41:01 UTC 2005

>> That's why some states (e.g. Texas) require that all toll calls be
>> dialed as 1+ _regardless of area code_, and local calls cannot be
>> dialed as 1+.  If you dial a number wrong, you get a message
>> telling you how to do it properly (and why).

>In some places that "solution" is _not_practical_.  As in where the same
>three digit sequence is in use as a C.O. 'prefix', *and* as an areacode.
>(an where, in some 'perverse' situations, the foreign area-code is a 
>'non-toll' call, yet the bare prefix within the areacode is a toll call.

Oh, it works technically, local is 10D, toll is 1+10D, but since they
don't have permissive dialing, Texans have to memorize lists of local
prefixes in order to be able to use their phones.  Way to go.

I agree that life would be simpler if there were some straightforward
way to ask telcos whether a call from a->b was local or toll.

R's,
John