13 no Guardian, Charlottetown, Wed. Feb. 2'1, 1988.
All-Digit Phone Plan , Draws Some Protests
Ry TOM HENSHAW NEW YORK (AP)—-Last stim- mar the Pacific Telephone Com- ‘ pony received—and eventually cubed—a cheque made. out to 7224342 835374663 and signed by 262 H473.
"1 just got sick and tired of digitals." explained 262 22473, otherwise identified around (‘ar- mel, Calif. as Bob Baird. sales manager of an automobile agency.
About the same time. a San Francism man with a less subtle turn of mind dipped his
pen in wrath and recommended
succinctly:
"To hell with ANt'l"
Both were protesting the same thing—all-numbcr calling (ANC'. also known as digit dial- ing. the telephone industry's latest step toward binding the world together with automated strands of talking wire.
It's called progress. And un- doubtedly it is. Instead of dial- ing two letters and five numbers torplace a call. you dial seven numbers. For example. RE 2-0500 becomes simply 7320500.
The. telephone industry figures it needs the added digit combi- nations or it will run out of phone numbers soon. It now has 81.001000 phones in the United States. It expects 600.000.0011 by the year 2000.
HISTORIC NAMES GO
Sacrificed to the digital on« slaught will be such old and cherished central exchange names as Bostnn's historic lith- erty. New Orleans" nostalgic Magnolia and New York‘s Up- er East Side status symbol, RIIIICl‘iIClt‘I R.
Opponents of ANC‘ say the change is unnecessary. memor- ably unwieldy and dehumaniz- ing. The telephone industry says It's none of those things. lndtis- t'ry figuring goes like this All North America. including Hawaii and some (‘aribbcan Islands. has been divided into 21 code areas. each with a three- digit number. These are the. three numbers you spin to dial long distance directly.
Under the two letter, five number system. each code area 1.: limited to 540 central ex— changes because dial figures 1 and 0 have no accompahy-ing letters and some letters do not combine into pronounceablc names.
Each central has 9300 work- lo: numbers. althouin niosl~~ like those in Presho. S.D.. and Luellle. Idaho. each with only 10 phoneswdo not even come close to using them all.
The current theoretical maxi. mum: 620730.000 possible num-
' .\V(‘. however.
code area can have up to 792 centrals. These are limited only by the. facts that 1 and 0 cannot be. used as the first digit and eight numbers are reserved for service calls 411 for informa- tion. etc.
The new theoretical maxi- mum: 910404.000 possible num- bers.
On the other hand. ('alilorn- ia's Anti-Digit Dialing League.
. for
each,
. Can “Harmless”
supported by such personages.
as semanticist S. l. Hayakawa
l
of San Francisco State College
and Hiram W. Johnson 111. grandson of a US. senator, comes up with a different set of figures. POSSIBLE NUMBERS
There. are. says the league. 792 possible area codes and 10,- 000 dialing possibilities in each central. With 540 ccntrals. there would be 4.250.000.000 possible numbers. more than the current World population.
"Granted." s a y. Norman Blair. chief of traffic facilities
American Telephone and Telegraph Company. “one day 792 code areas will be possible. But not now. For mechanical reasons. the second code area digit has to be 1 or 0. and 500 central combinations have to be reserved for number changes."
Are seven numbers more dif- ficult to remember than two let- ' ters and five numbers? .
"Studies show." says AT and ‘ T. “that customers“ ‘short term' memory 15 just as good with AM‘ as it is with 2L-5N. Fo ‘Iong term' memory. it takes a 1 little longer to memorize with: A ’ ‘ "
In other words. you can look up Aunt Mabel's ANC number‘ and remember it until you get to a phone but you might have§ a little difficulty in committing; it permanently to memory. .
But Dr. Jack Block. R psy-. chologist at the University oft California and a member of the l Anti—Difit Dialing League. says his tests show clearly that peo- ple can remember an exchange name and five digits more eas- ily than seven numbers.
LOSS OF IDENTITY
Is ANC dehumanizing?
“'l‘he charm of a pleasant sounding prefix adds a little bit of pleasure to a life that's al- ready losing its identity in a gigantic numerical filing sys- tem." complained a man from Solana Beach. Calif. i
engineers comm make. says Anti-Digit Dialer Ilayakawa. “And the phone company is full of officials who got iheir training as engineers."
“The ability to use numbers is one of the things that differ- entiates humans from animals." counters Dirk Barrett. AT and ' T's traffic results administrator. “What Is dehumanizing about th '
mistake
If you get the impression that 1 California Is a hot bed of revolt against /\.\(‘. you're absolutely right.
The telephone people can af- ford to take the charitable view. They're been through it all be- fore.
Back in 19:10. when the dial phone came into general use in Washington. Virginia's fi e r y Senator (.‘arter Glass rose in the Senate to support a resolution to ban dials.
“I object." he roared. “to being transformed into one of the employees of the telephone company w l t h out compensa- ' tion!"
Pound for pound the weighed l00t. there probably never was a tougher fighter than Carter Glassfiand he lost.
ROOSTS CREDIT
TOKYO (AP) »- China said Tuesday it is granting Cuba easier credit terms to cover what Havana owes Peking. A1 Peking broadcast said a long-‘ term. interest-free loan would: cover “the trade balance in favor of China during the years . 1962 and 1963." It gave no de- 1 tails.
Drugs Be Fatal?
One modern drug. taken in
addition to another, can cause . severe. illness. even death. In
March Reader‘s Digest, a l doctor who is a specialist in the.
field of poisons tells why. Read ‘ "What. You Should Know ‘ About. the Drugs You Take”, ‘ one of 38 articles of lasting
interest. in March Reader's
Digest. Get. your copy today.
"oasg-does-fl'
MOLIISSES
GINGER
coon
' no mummy
SUGAR CONTINT
1": pure Barbados
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