Hi Jerry,

 JS>>> Then it would have to check for and strip the local area code,
 JS>>> or it would never be able to make local calls.

 MvdV>> Not necessarily. Depending on the telephone system. Over here in
 MvdV>> The Netherlands I can make a local call with or without the local
 MvdV>> area code. (I have it put a '0' in front of the local area code.)
 MvdV>> Both will work. It could be the same in (parts of) OZ.

 JS> I checked with more than one person down there.

From a message  from Scott Little I understand that it is indeed the same
in OZ as it is in The Netherlands. Replacing the country code (31 for NL,
61 for OZ) and replacing it with a 0 suffices for making a call to anywhere
in the country.

 JS>>> if the  system isn't configured at least that well, the very first
 JS>>> test call will fail.

 MvdV> But that alone will not stop it from diallig 000.

 JS> Well, if the sysop doesn't have the sense to test with a
 JS> local call first, then they probably deserve to have a
 JS> policeman give them a nudge.

A local call is a call to a number in the nodelist starting with 61-. As
follows from the above, all that is needed to make such a call it to
replace the country code by a zero.

A call to a number starting with 000- is not a local call. There is no way
to tell what will will happen if the system is only configured and tested
for- to correctly dial local calls.

 MvdV>> In most countries '0' is the prefix to use. The Z1
 MvdV>> telephone system is a bit of an oddball.

 JS> As I said, I checked with some folks in Oz. If you say that
 JS> in NL you dial 0-areacode then I have no reason to doubt you.

According to Scott Little it is the same in OZ.

 JS>>> Calls to other country codes would have to have a different prefix
 JS>>> to access an international line.

 MvdV>> 00 in most countries now...

 JS>>> How would "000-" ever get through that unchanged?

 MvdV>> By '0' being the prefix for non local calls and 00 the prefix for
 MvdV>> international calls and the system not being specifically
 MvdV>> configured to block calls to 000?

 JS> That's as country-dependent as the emergency number itself.

Of course. We were talking about nodes inside OZ attempting to dial a
number starting with 000-

Actually I gather the situation in OZ is much the same as in The Netherlands.

My dial control list looks like this:

DIAL / 00-
 31- 0

That's it. With this setup it dials 00000-xxx when I attempt to dial a 000- node.

Fortunately in my country this does no harm. But for a node in OZ that uses
a similar setup...

 JS> If I can find a phone system somewhere that uses "031" as
 JS> the emergency number, will you change your listing?

No because there is no need. My  number in the nodelist does not start wit
"031", it starts with "31".

 JS> Are you suggesting we expel 6:606/7 because the emergency number in
 JS> the US is 911?

No.

I see no way that a system in the USA could inadvertently dial 911 by
attempting to dial a New Delhi number unless it was severely misconfigured.
The situation is not the same as the 000- case. Part of the problem with
the 000- case it that it consists of the smae three digits and that the LD
access code and the international accees code also consist of zero's.

The American emergency number does not consist of three the same digits and
the access code are also different digits. So putting or omitting the
access codes does not result in a number starting with the same sequence of
identical digits.

But even if there were a comparible difficulty, I would of course not
advocate dropping New Delhi from the nodelist. We'd have to find  another
solution.

 JS> We can't avoid every possibility.

But we can avoid /this/ one. Contrary to all the other numbers, the use of
the 000- sequence in the nodelist is pour own decision.

Cheers, Michiel

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