1-800 numbers are difficult to dial outside the US.
Not if you dial 1-880 instead....
To clarify, certain areas have a dialling hack that allows you to dial
either +1 880 to get an equivalent 800 number, or +880, as long as you
pay the charges. It's been a while since this came up on c.d.t, but I
believe it was a Canada hack, implemented the former way, rather than an
international hack, implemented the latter.
Of course, the former hack will die the minute someone allocates 880,
but I think that code's reserved.
Cheers,
-- jra
Your mileage can, and definitely will, vary.
Not all 800 numbers map to 880 (a workaround kludge for 800 number access
from outside the US). Not all companies or long-distance carriers offer
(or accept in the company's case) that option for international calls.
Bottom line is that for maximum availabilty, 800/888 numbers are bad form.
The POTS line, or similar DID number should be used in records where
international people may need to access it.
Derek
For the record:
US INTL
1-800 = +1 880
1-888 = +1 881
1-877 = +1 882
1-866 = +1 883
1-855 = +1 884
1-844 = +1 885
1-833 = +1 886
1-822 = +1 887
This is according to Bellcore, the people who run the NANP. The codes
on the left are the ones reserved for domestic toll-free services, and
the ones on the right are reserved for the corresponding international
semi-toll-free services. I use "semi-toll-free" to mean that the US
charges are paid by the callee, while the intl charges are paid by the
caller.
Sean's point, as told to me privately, was that the people at the DISA
NOC didn't know this, and couldn't provide any other means for someone
outside the US to contact them (direct toll call, etc).
Stephen
Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
This is getting _way_ off topic, but Bellcore no longer is the NANP
adminstrator... Lockheed Martin took over a while (months?) ago. Check
out http://www.nanpa.com ; lots of useful information there...
--zawada
Paul J. Zawada, RCDD | Senior Network Engineer
zawada@ncsa.uiuc.edu | National Center for Supercomputing Applications
+1 630 686 7825 | http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/People/zawada