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When do I actually dial 1?

Started by mmd, February 23, 2011, 02:15:12 AM

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AE_Collector

Probably 001 202 555-1212. I added the area code 202 as an example.

Terry

twocvbloke

Quote from: AE_Collector on January 15, 2013, 01:48:43 AM
Probably 001 202 555-1212. I added the area code 202 as an example.

Terry

Good point, thought it seemed a bit short... :D

Owain

Quote from: twocvbloke on January 15, 2013, 01:12:48 AM
Quote from: George Knighton on January 14, 2013, 10:15:23 PMTo call Pimlico you had to start with 011441 and then the residence number.

Not sure how I remember that.  LOL....

Not sure why you have the additional 1 at the end there

011 for international
44 for UK
1 for London (in the days of 01)
followed by the code for Pimlico exchange (probably 798) and the number.

dsk

Today Norwegian emergency numbers starts with 1.
110 112 and 113


Many other services are starting at 1 too.

Before we went away from area codes, many local 5 or 6 digits numbers just started at 1.
Now all regular numbers are 8 digits here, call the next door neighbor or a reltive 500 miles away, 8 digits!
None of these starts at 1

dsk

George Knighton

Quote from: twocvbloke on January 15, 2013, 01:12:48 AM
Quote from: George Knighton on January 14, 2013, 10:15:23 PMTo call Pimlico you had to start with 011441 and then the residence number.

Not sure how I remember that.  LOL....

Not sure why you have the additional 1 at the end there (funny that, seeing as this thread is all about the 1!!), as according to BT, all you dial from outside the UK is 01144, then the number minus the 0, e.g. 011442071234567 (London), or 011441916451234 (Tyneside-based Skype-In no.), or 011447947123456 (Mobile phone), blummin' long string of numbers that... :D

Though from our side, to call the US, it's 001, then the US number, though not being sure of it, I guess it'd be like 0015551212, or something along those lines, or dial one of the freefone 0800 numbers to access US networks without faffing about with trying to work out what to dial... :D

BT.com International dialling info link

I'm trying to remember.  Nobody calls anybody any longer.

I think 011 gave you the international trunk, then 44 meant British, and 1 meant London. 

I think.  :-)

You've got me wondering now how much of the call was copper, how much was microwave, how much was satellite, and how many calls still ended up on the Trans-Atlantic cable.

It was a lot easier calling the UK and Ireland, I recall, than most other places outside the USA.  It was also true the other way around.  People in London seemed to expect that you would be calling the USA, and that it was entirely normal.  Now that I think of it, I remember having to call somebody in Bordeaux from London, and people sounded like, "Are you sure?"
Annoying new poster.

George Knighton

Quote from: Owain on January 15, 2013, 06:00:39 AM
Quote from: twocvbloke on January 15, 2013, 01:12:48 AM
Quote from: George Knighton on January 14, 2013, 10:15:23 PMTo call Pimlico you had to start with 011441 and then the residence number.

Not sure how I remember that.  LOL....

Not sure why you have the additional 1 at the end there

011 for international
44 for UK
1 for London (in the days of 01)
followed by the code for Pimlico exchange (probably 798) and the number.

I should read before I post.  Thank you.
Annoying new poster.

twocvbloke

I've never made an international phone call myself, I tend to use forums and MSN messenger to natter with people in other parts of this blue & green marble, mostly cos I can't stand talking on the phone, despite having a collection of them... :D

Owain

Quote from: twocvbloke on January 15, 2013, 12:42:07 PM
I've never made an international phone call myself,

I can remember sending telexes in the 80s...

Forgot to press 'end of message' once and left the machine connected to Sierra Leone or somewhere similar for 20 minutes ..

twocvbloke

I've never even seen a Telex machine in person, when I was a kid though I used to get end-of-rolls (with the red marker stripes) of the paper from them from my aunt to use for drawing on, I always used to wonder what a Telex was, cos back then I didn't even know anything about fax machines...  :D

Erin Tyres

Back in the days of station wagons and the Beatles, 1 worked like this:  Calls that you could dial without a 1 were free.  Calls that required a 1 were toll calls that were charged by the minute and appeared on your monthly bill.  A customer might have to dial 1 before a seven digit number to call the more distant parts of his area code, and would always have to dial 1 to call another area code.  In other works, dialing a call with 1 started the billing mechanism. 

If you were not sure if a call was close enough to be free, you would dial it without a 1, and you would sometimes hear a recording from that classic phone lady saying, "I'm sorry, you must first dial 1 when calling this number."

The 1985 movie "Desperately Seeking Susan" has a line like "Remember Susan, only seven digit phone numbers!".  The Susan character was all screwed up and her hosts didn't want her to run up a big phone bill while staying with them.

MMikeJBenN27

I always thought the "1" meant United States or Canada, and you included it in operator assisted calls, so she would know that it was a US or Canadian phone number.

Mike

RDPipes

Quote from: MMikeJBenN27 on August 22, 2023, 12:13:19 AMI always thought the "1" meant United States or Canada, and you included it in operator assisted calls, so she would know that it was a US or Canadian phone number.

Mike
I remember it as any call that was considered Long Distance, which back then could include a town only a few miles away sometimes. If you didn't dial "1" first you'd get the operator recording telling you too for the number dialed as Erin has said.

jsowers

Back in those days Erin refers to, we did have a series of station wagons, two Fords and two Oldsmobiles. And we did own a 45 copy of Let it Be. We had a curious wrinkle in the "dial 1" that most everyone else had but we didn't. We had to dial "112" for long distance direct dialed calls and "110" for operator assisted calls. It was an independent telco and not Southern Bell.

Why did we dial 112 or 110? Because our prefix was 731 (REgent 1 in the early days) and with the mechanical switching system you could just dial 1 and the last four digits and skip the 73 part. So Aunt Betty was 14214. The local doctor was 12121 and yes I successfully dialed his number once just using the switchhook of our AE80. That's about as phone geeky as I ever got.

When electronic switching came along about 1980, that all went away and we dialed the full 7-digit number. Or 1+the 7-digit number or 1+area code and 7-digit number for long distance calls, depending on if they were inside or outside our area code. Our county was split into two area codes at that time, 919 and 704, only about two miles away from my house. Lots of long distance dialing going on in those mostly rotary days. Also five different phone companies served our county. It was a mess, but it worked. Two of our schools had two different phone lines, one for each area code.

Later they changed us to one area code and then implemented a wide area calling plan and most numbers within 50 or so miles were 7 digits and our area code changed to 910 and then 336. But anything to area code 704 or 919 still required 1 and so did 800 numbers and that's still the case on my POTS line. 

"You have dialed a number to which long distance charges apply" is the recording we would get when we needed to dial 1 first. We do also have 10-digit dialing due to the 743 area code overlay. I have statewide "free" long distance on my POTS line and up to a couple months ago they would still put the long distance numbers I called in my phone bill, but not any more. 
Jonathan

HarrySmith

Good to see a 10 year old post still getting attention ;D
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

RDPipes

Quote from: HarrySmith on August 22, 2023, 01:53:08 PMGood to see a 10 year old post still getting attention ;D

I didn't know he was only 10 years old Harry?
Well good for him!