Conference 7.286::digital

    A silly answer from Germany: Never thought about it, but I guess it's
    for people to easily remember the phone numbers. As I can see, this
    is widely used with 800- numbers.
    
    Example: 800-MARTIN is easier to remember than 800-627846. Well, as
    in Germany. I guess in other countries there would be other numbers.
    
    Hung

    What you're dealing with is an ancient Bell Telephone legacy: the
    Exchange Name. In the earliest times, a telephone switchboard had a
    name, and the switchboard operator routed calls to other switchboards
    by the names pasted over little sockets on the switchboard. When the
    numeric rotary dial was invented, Ma Bell came up with the lettering
    scheme to represent the original exchange names. Where someone used to
    place a call by telling the operator "Brooks #459", they now had to
    dial "BR-459" instead. As to how the letters got assigned to the
    numbers, I remember reading how it was decided many years ago, but
    it escapes me at the moment. What we ended up with was:
    
    1 - no letters
    2 - ABC
    3 - DEF
    4 - GHI
    5 - JKL
    6 - MNO
    7 - PRS (Q was left out)
    8 - TUV
    9 - WXY (Z was left out)
    0 - Operator
    
    The * and # keys were added when the Touch Tone system was created,
    but I don't know if they had specific names or functions assigned to
    them originally, or if they just existed to create the 3x4 key pattern.
    
    Geoff 

>Some automatic systems require You to enter alphanumeric
>information via the touchtone phone...

I think a different question was asked then was answered.

I think the author may be talking about touch tone systems that ask you to 
enter things like you name, which is hopefully NOT numeric,  I've only used
these on rare occasions as the user interface is quite poor, but essentially
they work like this...

given the 4, which has the letters GHI on it, you enter a 2-digit sequence, one
for the key and one for the position.  groan...  As to how the position is
described, you usually enter it using the same row as the original key using.
So in my example above, G is 44, H is 45 and I is 46.  For the letter TUV which
are on the 8 key, you'd use T-87, U-88, V-89!

As I said, it's ugly... One last thing, since Q and Z aren't on the keypad, you
have to do special things with the * and # keys. 

-mark

    RE:.2
    
    >The * and # keys were added when the Touch Tone system was created,
    >but I don't know if they had specific names or functions assigned to
    >them originally, or if they just existed to create the 3x4 key pattern.
    
    Actually, the Touchtone system was created as a 4X4 for a total of 16
    keys.  The other keys were originally used only by the CO as they
    thought that nobody else could generate those dual tones.  When the
    Phone Phreaks got involved, they changed how they did things.  The
    original implementation of Touchtone didn't includ the * and # to the
    public- the keypad only had 10 keys.  Later, they realized that it
    might be useful to have a couple of non-numeric keys and they began to
    include the # and * on the phones although it was many years before
    anyone actually used them.

    
      I thought the '*' and '#'  were intended for future expansion
    to turn the video on and off?  Back in the 70's,  picture phones
    seemed right around the corner...
    
    
    					-al
    

   Re: Note 4485.2 by ZPOVC::GEOFFREY
   

�    What you're dealing with is an ancient Bell Telephone legacy: the
�    Exchange Name. In the earliest times, a telephone switchboard had a
�    name, and the switchboard operator routed calls to other switchboards
�    by the names pasted over little sockets on the switchboard. When the
�    numeric rotary dial was invented, Ma Bell came up with the lettering
   
   Ahh! Memories.  Highland 1-5568 (441-5568).  My house's phone number
   as a toddler.  Highland was the exchange for Ft. Thomas, KY.  
   
   Usually the name had some ties to the community.  Highlands was the
   name of the highschool.  Highlander was the the name of the yearbook. 
   Etc.  When Cincy Bell joined the ranks of a standardized 3-digit
   exchange with 4-digit number, most people kept on referring to their
   phone numbers as Highland One nnnn.
   
   This went out the window when Ft. Thomas used up its 10000 phone
   numbers, and Cincy Bell started assigning Southgate exchange numbers
   to our town (781-nnnn).

    The AT&T phone I'm looking at assigned Q to 7 and Z to 9 so that it had
    a complete alphabet.  Those keys got 4 letters (AT&T 642 two line unit).
    
    I've seen another variation of typing in names -- this one for voice
    mail allowing you to send voice mail without knowing the person's
    extension.  Here you just typed in the name, ambiguity and all (since
    each key could be any of 3 or 4 letters).  When it had a match or when
    you hit #, it gave you a menu to select which one you wanted (or
    confirm the single match).  This works only when the system already
    knows the name you're trying for.
    
    Steveg

    Re: 4

    Weren't the four extra tones originally reserved for AUTOVON use?
    They would appear as a column of buttons to the right of 3-6-9-# by the
    way.

    Early Bell promotional photos show Touch-Tone phones with only ten 
    button keypads, so the * and # must have been added later.  I used the
    Picturephone at the NY World's Fair, but I was all of eight years old,
    so I don't remember if the non-numeric buttons were used for video
    control.

    You know, we used to have a telephony notes file that had all this
    stuff in it.  Ah the good old days . . . :-)

    George

    12dot2::telephones

    re: .7
    
    That name dialing feature has been in use at DCO & COP for many months.
    
    -- Russ

	I STILL can only remember some family friends phone number at
	starting with FA7-xxxx. They live in West Roxbury, MA. If you
	were to ask me what numbers, off the top of my head, equate to
	FA, I'd look at you funny.

	My billfold for my travel documents is about 30+ years old. It's
	from an old travel agent in West Roxbury (we used to live there).
	The phone number is Highlands 5-xxxx (HI5-xxxx).

	Wow.. Memories..

								mike

    >>given the 4, which has the letters GHI on it, you enter a 2-digit
    >>sequence, one for the key and one for the position.  groan...  As to
    >>how the position is described, you usually enter it using the same row
    >>as the original key using. So in my example above, G is 44, H is 45 and
    >>I is 46.  
    
    
    A couple of weeks ago, I called the Intel Fax-back service, and they
    had an easier way to do it.  To input an "A", you pressed "2", to enter
    "B", you entered "22", and to input "C", you entered "222".  After each
    selection, it would echo back the letter chosen, giving you the option
    of backing up (using one of the non-alphabetic keys).
    
    That may be an easier way to do it.

On older dial phones, the letter "Z" was assigned to the zero, but it
was never, to my knowledge, used as part of an exchange dialing sequence.

M

    re: .11
    
    New York had some great ones.  PEnnsylvania, MUrray Hill, etc.  I can
    still remember the Macy's phone number:  MUrray Hill 7-0700.
    
    George

	... no reply from John Covert, yet! :>)

    Growing up in Moscow, Idaho, it was TUcker2-nnnn.  Don't know what the
    Tucker stood for.
    
    Chris

    It's also famous in the Glenn Miller swing song, Pennsylvania 65000,
    which was (is?) the phone number for the Pennsylvania Hotel in New
    York City.

It still is; the current name is The Hotel Pennsylvania.

For a while it was a Ramada, but it's independent again now.

Across from Penn Station and the DEC Office at 1 Penn Plaza.

/john

    Re .18 Actualy, the DEC office is at *2* Penn Plaza. My boss sits
    there. :-)
    
    Harry
    

	It's not a US only convention. All Frenchs old enough remember:

	BALZAC 0001 (the 1000 of the target which fall down).
	Jean Mineur Publicite dans toutes les salles de cinema before every
	publicity.

	It now something like 45 66 0001
	Joel

    When I was a kid our phone number was FAirmount 1064 (FA-1064).  Then
    they added a number to the exchange and it became FA1-1064.  Finally it
    just became 321-1064
    
    	John

    re: .6
    KImberly 2-3629, Santa Ana, CA
    nearby were LIberty, (Costa Mesa - also using "54....." &
    KEllog, (Anaheim).
    
    Am i better off now than i was 35 years ago?
    (sigh)
    [dale]
    

It is noticeable that in the (American) movies, phone numbers are always 
555-xxxx. (Did the phone companies specifically reserve 555 for this purpose?)

Lots of old books I read list phone numbers as KLondike 5-xxxx.

I also remember that when Simon Templar (the Saint, for those who have heard of 
him) went to America, his FBI contact was IMperial 5-5555. IMperial is the same 
as KLondike, of course, but it sounds better.

As an aside, Australia seems to have no such standards for letters <-> digits. I 
have two phones on my desk, and they have slightly different letter/digit 
assignments.

PJDM

    The  555 prefix is used for directory assistance in North Americaa. For
    example if I dial 1-416-555-1212 I will get the directory assistance
    for the 416 area code.  Simply change the area code to get directory
    assistance for that area.
    
    I presume Hollywood uses 555 as they want to generate a number that has
    no real person at the other end.  People like to try numbers ...
    wouldn't you be happy if it just happened to be your phone number that
    was given out in your favourite movie.
    

    I think many years ago the phone companies explicitly asked writers to
    use 555 just to avoid the problem mentioned of people calling numbers
    they saw.  Still a few slip out and there have been well-publicized
    cases such as a mention of fictional 800 number in a film (meant in the
    script as a joke) - supposedly some kid saw this and tried dialing it,
    turned out to get a phone-sex line or some such.
    
    					Steve

	And lets not forget the number 867-5309. A number made famous
	in the States by a one-hit wonder band. The number shows up
	again in Duke Nukem 3D, a Doom-like PC game.

							mike

FWIW, 

Re: .23
>I also remember that when Simon Templar (the Saint, for those who have heard of 
>him) went to America, his FBI contact was IMperial 5-5555. IMperial is the same 
>as KLondike, of course, but it sounds better.


IMperial = 46
KLondike = 55

For KLondike and IMperial to be the same, 5 letters would need to be on the 5.

    
    	RE: .26
    
    	Tommy TuTone, in case anyone cares.
    

    Is there any real (i.e., non-screenplay) number that has a 555 prefix 
    besides long distance information (nnn-555-1212)?
    
    George

    >> As an aside, Australia seems to have no such standards for letters
    >> <-> digits. I  have two phones on my desk, and they have slightly
    >> different letter/digit  assignments.
    
    So, how can these be of any use if they aren't consistent on all
    phones?
    

Re: .29

Yes - I have seen them, but they are used by phone companies and not given
out to individuals or other businesses.  I was astonished the first time
I saw one.

				Steve

    re.26/.28
    
    ...he was the entertainment at my high-school prom ('72)!
    
    kp
    

    
    	'72?!?!
    
    	Wow, what took him so long to have a hit?
    

re .29:

The phone co. just "freed up" many 555 numbers for general use.  I'm sure some
are in use by now.  They asked moviemakers to use numbers from the subset that
wasn't freed up.  They did this in a dumb method.  That is, years from now
someone's going to be asking why all phone numbers on American movies and
TV shows begin with either 555-0 or 555-1.

800-555-xxxx numbers have been in use for a while.

Re .30: letters on digits aren't any use in Australia, we don't use them. If we 
see a phone number like 1-800-DIGITAL, we know it's not one of ours.

Trivial aside on choosing a phone number: I recently moved into a new house and 
rang up the phone company for a new phone number. She said "how about 2929434, 
it's got rhythm!"

PJDM

I have a program which will search a dictionary for words which match
your phone number.  My experience with this is that most numbers are
incredibly boring.  If someone has a catchy word or phrase then it is
extremely rare to have another word or phrase from the same set of phone
digits.  See what "DIGITAL" also spells below.   I wouldn't worry about
a prankster calling and saying, "Haw, I dialed 1-800-EGG-GUCK and got
you!"  It just isn't very funny.

Still, I'd recommend you take a phone number with several zeros and ones
in it to reduce the chances of getting some funny phrase.

re: 555.  Usually 1-700-555-4141 in the USA will get you the
identification of your default long distance carrier.  Then you can dial
"700" and "555-as-an-exchange" in just one call.

FWIW,
Chuck

DBP V1.1 phone number/word program.
Now solving "DIGITAL".
EH
DIG
DIGHT
DIGIT
DIGITAL
DIGITALS
EGG
EIGHT
FIG
FIGHT
.I
.HI
.GHI
.GIG
..I
..HI
..GIT
..HIT
...I
...IT
...GUCK
...GUCKS
...HUB
...HUCK
...HUCKS
....TA
....TAJ
....TAKE
....TALA
....TALC
....TALE
....TALI
....TALK
....TALL
....VALE
.....A
.....ALA
.....ALB
.....ALE
.....ALL
.....ALP
.....ALT

    For what it's worth...
    
    My husband is in the entertainment industry and it is explicitly called
    out in contracts that require the use of phone numbers beginning with
    555 in all productions.  
    
    In addition, their is an insurance policy that all productions
    are required to have (at least those that aren't gorilla filmmaking)
    called an E&O policy (errors and omissions).  This is in case
    something gets into a movie/show that really does exist without the
    owners permission(i.e. a phone  number) and then the production is
    sued, the insurance company pays the bill.  As a result, it is watched
    very carefully.  
    
    That is why not only do all phone numbers begin with
    555, but you will never see a person actually dialing a phone number
    unless it begins with 555.
                     
    Just some trivia.
    
    Shilah

For what it's worth, that was because the phone company did not used to
assign numbers (except for a few internal phone company numbers) beginning
with 555.

This is no longer the case.

/john

>>> This is in case something gets into a movie/show that really does 
>>> exist without the owners permission(i.e. a phone  number) and then the
>>> production is sued, the insurance company pays the bill.  

The lawsuit can also happens in reverse!

The creators of the "Simpson's" cartoon originally created "Duff's" brand 
beer to avoid being sued by some large beer company.  Recently the TV show 
won a lawsuit against an Austrailian beer company that actually tried to 
really market "Duff's" brand beer.


							-Paul