TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Old Party-Line Arrangements

Re: Old Party-Line Arrangements

John Levine (johnl@iecc.com)
9 Feb 2005 14:32:03 -0000

>> In the 1970s, I knew people at non-Bell independents who used circle
>> digits, the extra digit to identify the calling phone. There was also
>> a surprising amount of ONI, operators cutting in to ask for your
>> number, even on private lines in Bell territory before ANI was
>> universal.

> Why the name "circle" digit?

It was displayed in a circle on the card in the middle of the dial
above or below your phone number.

In the 1970s and 1980s my sister in law in Ghent NY had a circle digit
even though she had a private line, so toll calls were 11-number where
the second 1 was the circle digit.

Regards,

John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of The Internet for Dummies
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor
"I shook hands with Senators Dole and Inouye," said Tom, disarmingly.

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