Hello Janis,

 >>> All this Aussie 000 problem is nothing but a hoax.

 >> Maybe.

 >> It does not make the /other/ problem go away: that some POTS mailers
 >> have no documented way of preventing them from attempting to dial
 >> *something* when encountering such a number. The only
"number" that
 >> is guaranteed to stop ALL POTS mailers from attempting to dial out
 >> is "-Unpublished-".

 > That hasn't been tested much, at this point..

You have me confused there. "-Unpublished-" has been in the
nodelist almost from the very beginning over two decades ago. I don't
recall anyone ever reporting a problem with "-Unpublished-".

 > As far as I know no one has really tested it much at all... in
 > a "live data" arena at least.

It has been in the nodelist for two decades....

 > I know that some mailers are capable of translating alphas to
 > digits as well.

You have me confused again. What has that got to do with it?

 > I don't know if secondary programs will have problems with it
 > either (compilers like xlat, etc.)

Again: "-Unpublished-" has been in the nodelist for two decades.

>> So that should be the only thing allowed in field 6, when there
>> is no valid phone number.

 > Perhaps.  We do know that 000- doesn't cause trouble, and
 > hasn't all these years.

That is not true. Several problems have been reported, you just choose to ignore it.

Cheers, Michiel

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