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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I set up a couple of PABXs this way 25 years
ago. It was a little simpler then because there was a more uniform number
plan in the US back then, although most of the industry people I talked to
though I was totally crazy. It was a 300 station 3 digit extensions
system. It worked well for a number of years.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>As was previously mentioned briefly, early PABXs
not only didn't have pattern matching, many couldn't do store and forward
dialing, so 9 literally connected you to a trunk where you got a second dial
tone from the CO before you could do more dialing. That's this history of
it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Where I live now in Colorado we have 1+ for long
distance and 10 digits for the two local area codes. Other areas are
different. Since the two local area codes are 303 and 720, there are four
leading sequences possible</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> 1+ for toll</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> 303+ for local</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> 720+ for local</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> 0+ for anything operator or
credit card related.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>For my SOHO setup, I opted to used two digit
extensions of the form 2+</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If I run out, I will use 4+</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The one I did 25 years ago was more complicated
because the CO allowed (so people were used to) 7 digit dialing. LD could
be 1+ seven or 10 digits. I basically avoided local prefixes and hoped the
CO didn't throw me too many curve balls. The biggest curve ball was when
the changed the meaning of 1 from long distance (7 or 10) to area code
prefix. Suddenly what people had to at home created conflicts between
non-local prefixes in the area code and extension numbers. We just left
the old rules in effect, as most people were dialing either local or out of area
code anyway.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>BTW, I'm not aware of any shift towards 8, except
that the Hotel/Motel industry has been using both 8 and 9 to differentiate
between local and long distance. It makes programming the switch much
simpler.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Wilton</FONT></DIV>
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