With Canada wide free long distance commonly available these days, why do we still have to dial 1? For me, and many others, the only difference between dialing across the street and across the country is we have to dial 1 on "long distance" calls, but not local. There is no longer any charge for either. I'm old enough to remember when it was long distance to call across the street, between Oakville and what's now Mississauga (one of the kids in my class at school lived on the Mississauga side of Winston Churchill and it was a long distance call to her friends on the Oakville side). Years ago, the 1 was used to signify a toll call and the middle digit of the exchange/area code was used to distinguish one from the other. Area codes had 0 or 1 for the middle digit and anything else was an exchange code. Both this and the 1 for long distance were needed by the primitive equipment of the time. We've since dropped that middle digit difference, but not the 1 for long distance. With today's systems, it's easy enough to determine whether a number is long distance, solely by the area & exchange codes, without needing a 1 at the front. Why do we still have to dial it, particularly on a toll free call? I can understand wanting to have it on toll calls, to warn callers that the call is not free.
you said the magic word "commonly available" this means some people still have old tiers and plans which do NOT have Canada wide long distance, the 1 is merely a safeguard theres lots of calls being auto dialed by dialer systems and not humans, so having the 1 requirement could save them from getting a heafty bill if someone were to mis-configure a number, eihter way, i am not sure why but i do know some people still dont have canada wide long distance and they like the "this is a long distance call" prompt when they forget to put the 1
I don't have a problem with the 1 for toll calls, but why when there is no charge? As I said, these days it's easy to determine what's long distance and what isn't. We have these things called "computers" which make such a thing easy. Computers weren't common when direct distance dialing was implemented, back in the '50s. The exchanges were all relays then too.
Don't live in canada, but just a thought....because the switch your call is made from requires it to communicate with the switch you are calling to. The switches you call have to signal with each other, they may be made by any number of vendors, all running their own software... They have to agree on a sheet of music (standards), before they can sing.. If you have a better way of doing it than the telcom engineers in Canada, develop your own standards, by all means...
For now this wiki entry might have some answers for ya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan#Numbering_plan_areas_and_central_offices
First off, my career is largely in telecom and they do have standards they follow. But that's not the issue. This is deciding which is a toll call and which is not. Years ago, dialing 1 was necessary to do that. But that hasn't been the case for decades, since electronic switching came in. Also, since so much is moving to VoIP these days, there is no longer any switching as used to be the case previously. I started working in the business when a lot of the equipment was built with relays and vacuum tubes. both of those were high maintenance and the system capacity was peanuts by today's tech. That made calls expensive. With VoIP, costs have dropped to the point that charging for calls is pointless. Regardless, should someone be charged for calls, it has nothing to do with switching, but rather looking up the destination to determine whether it's long distance or not. There is no special equipment that has to be switched in, as there was years ago. So, when someone makes a toll call, then require the 1 and do the billing. Otherwise, just treat it as a local call.
The way the phone system is set up, if you're dialing any line outside of your local area, you must put the country code. 1 is the country code for USA/Canada. You will dial other number first if you call other countries.
I am well aware of that. However, my local area has been growing over the years. When I was a kid, in Oakville Ont., my local calling area was Oakville. As I mentioned, calling across the road to Mississauga was long distance. Later we could call Toronto and no longer had to dial a 1 and the local area has grown since to where it's now all of Canada. Yet for some parts of my "local" area I have to dial 1, for other parts not. With today's tech, they could require a 1 only on toll calls. We've been through this change before.
Like Jamesk I remember those anomalies in dialling the ‘1’ or not. Still have some around here. A 519 call that crosses the 401, like Guelph to Cambridge still needs it.
Apart from the technology I always understood it was about the Bell/ATT groups, aided by the CRTC in Canada wanting to keep their revenues up. And some thing about the unfairness of some people having wider free calling areas than others.
About 20 years ago the Economist suggested that all calls to anywhere should just be a one penny/cent for the setup and no further charges on the call and that would reflect the real costs of a call...they did suggest that for ALL calls including local.
My Rogers cell phone seems happy to not dial the ‘1’ but my Rogers Home phone obviously connects to Bell and does still need the 1
so james, i assume you worked on the switches, and wrote the software doing the call routing, translations, and did all the call tracing of problems, billing issues, etc, Great... so you are qualified to speak for all the network operators throughout canada, knowing when something is necessary and when it's not? OK I get ur point.
If a guy can dial 10 digits, what is so hard for the same guy to dial 11? or even 12 or 13 (eg 001, so on) .
Dialling the "1" hasn't been necessary on cell phones for years. As landline providers are still somewhat regulated, I would assume that this persistent requirement may exist in regulations or tariffs. Also, as mentioned, some plans do not include domestic long distance. The switch cannot identify what plan the customer subscribes to. The job of the switch is to simply route the call and send off the particulars to billing.
The switch cannot identify what plan the customer subscribes to. The job of the switch is to simply route the call and send off the particulars to billing.
Jase88 hit the nail on the head, the switch has no idea what long distance plan the CX subscribes to, only the carrier or LD provider knows this so if we remove this requirement, there WILL be an influx of mis-dialed long distance calls and maybe this is why this requirement is still in place?
I think there is some cohérence issues involved here.
Let’s say we do drop the “1” requirement for all users that have free long distance. And one of those people has a landline that does still bill for long distance, let’s say at work. He’ll have to dial that one, but it will be confusing for that person to switch mental contexts.
Also, how would your line distinguish clearly, without any reasonable doubt, that you want to call Montréal (area code 514) instead of calling Perú (country code 51).
Or area code 371 versus country code 371, which both exist.
If anything, we should drop the international trunk code (011) instead of the NANP trunk code (1), and start using the country code for all calls (1-605-nnn-nnnn).
Apart from the technology I always understood it was about the Bell/ATT groups, aided by the CRTC in Canada wanting to keep their revenues up. And some thing about the unfairness of some people having wider free calling areas than others.
About 20 years ago the Economist suggested that all calls to anywhere should just be a one penny/cent for the setup and no further charges on the call and that would reflect the real costs of a call...they did suggest that for ALL calls including local.
Years ago, there were rate centres, based on location. As I kid, I was in the Oakville rate centre. These rate centres were based on 1 or more exchanges that provided local calling. Again in Oakville, the exchanges we could call for free were 844, 845 and 827 (Bronte). Anything beyond that was long distance. I also recall reading, years ago, about someone who actually could not make a local call. Everything was long distance.
My Rogers cell phone seems happy to not dial the ‘1’ but my Rogers Home phone obviously connects to Bell and does still need the 1
I haven't made any formerly long distance calls on my cell phone, since I got Canada wide calling recently. However, all the numbers in the phone book started with +1, so that they would work no matter where I was in the world. My home phone, which has had Canada wide calling for years, still requires 1.
so james, i assume you worked on the switches, and wrote the software doing the call routing, translations, and did all the call tracing of problems, billing issues, etc, Great... so you are qualified to speak for all the network operators throughout canada, knowing when something is necessary and when it's not? OK I get ur point.
If a guy can dial 10 digits, what is so hard for the same guy to dial 11? or even 12 or 13 (eg 001, so on) .
Actually, I have worked on the hardware, configuring dialing patterns etc.. However, that sort of technology is largely gone, with the move to VoIP. For example, my home phone, on Rogers, has been VoIP for over 10 years. Even Bell is moving to it. Certainly anyone on Fibe is using VoIP. Same with VoLTE on cell phones. With VoIP, the old system of exchanges and trunks is gone. It's all sent over the Internet or equivalent internal network. So, the original need for that 1 is long gone. And yes, I have also configured VoIP systems.
One issue I have is with dialing return calls. I can dial back to a number that just called me, by pressing a button on my home phone. However, with some calls, that number includes 1, when not needed, which means that call will be rejected, so I now have to dial the full 10 digits.
Dialling the "1" hasn't been necessary on cell phones for years. As landline providers are still somewhat regulated, I would assume that this persistent requirement may exist in regulations or tariffs. Also, as mentioned, some plans do not include domestic long distance. The switch cannot identify what plan the customer subscribes to. The job of the switch is to simply route the call and send off the particulars to billing.
I don't know that dialing 1 has ever been part of the tariff and the tariffs existed long before direct long distance dialing made that 1 necessary. Regardless, these days those tariffs are pretty much gone. They started disappearing with long distance competition, which goes back to the early '90s.
Incidentally, back in those days, I was in planning at Unitel and getting ready for long distance competition was a large part of my work.
Also, that "switch" had no problem determining whether a call was long distance, before I got Canada wide calling. Again, the traditional telephone exchange is largely gone. A VoIP "exchange" is essentially a computer connected via IP.
Also, how would your line distinguish clearly, without any reasonable doubt, that you want to call Montréal (area code 514) instead of calling Perú (country code 51).
Or area code 371 versus country code 371, which both exist.
My comments were entirely about calls within the toll free area. My toll free area is all of Canada, but I have to press 1 for some areas, but not others. Also, I had that difference between cell & home phones for years. I didn't have an issue keeping things straight.
Jase88 hit the nail on the head, the switch has no idea what long distance plan the CX subscribes to, only the carrier or LD provider knows this so if we remove this requirement, there WILL be an influx of mis-dialed long distance calls and maybe this is why this requirement is still in place?
The problem with that argument is the phone system is largely VoIP now, which means no more switches or trunks in the traditional sense. When you have a VoIP phone or terminal, you use IP to connect to the "exchange" which is just a computer that in turn contacts the "exchange" at the other end, and then exchanges IP addresses for the phones. The 2 phones are then supposed to talk directly with each other, without the call passing through the exchanges.
growing up I never had long distance, I always stored the 10- digit into my phone. long distance was expensive for me, and i never made long distance on my cell growing up because it was expensive back then on cell phones, I often used calling cards to call my family who were long distance and from what i can remember.
When i stored their number in my cell and accidentally called it, there was no 1 prefix so it would give a warning message and hang up the call thus i would NOT get charged for long distance.
My friend stored all his contacts even local numbers with the +1-416 or 1-905, etc and yes he would mistakenly dial a number which he thought was local but was infact long distance, remember, 905 goes up to like Niagara falls so its also long distance, so he would get a long distance charge on his bill cus back then we could not afford LD we were a bunch of college kids going to school and working part time only. so he quickly removed all the +1 prefix from all his contacts and he can tell which ones wer e LD or not he put LD in the name portion of the phone book, this kind of mentality still sticks with people in today's era and generation I guess! but yes old school people like me, my parents, my family etc still do it
growing up I never had long distance, I always stored my number with area code, then exchange into my phone. long distance was expensive for me, and i never made long distance on my cell growing up because it was expensive back then on cell phones, I often used calling cards to call my family who were long distance and from what i can remember.
When I first started using a phone, we had to dial a whole 5 digits! Since we were on the 845 exchange, the first digit to call us was 5. When I called a friend on the 844 exchange, the first digit to dial was 4. Then when direct long distance dialing came in, we had to start putting 84 in front. Back in those days, it was at least 5¢ /minute to call what's now Mississauga and calling overseas was a few $ per minute! Back then, we had different long distance rates, according to time of day, holidays, etc.
Things have certainly changed from generations ago to now, All *NEW* cell phone plans come with Canada wide calling, and US LD add-ons are very affordable compared to back in the day.
I remember working in an office years ago and my Boss gave me a work cell phone to use and said This is my company phone and use it to call other company contacts etc. well a big chunk of my company contacts were outside the GTA so they were LD, after 2 months into me using it my boss noticed i had made LD calls and I had told him well how else am I going to make important calls to other colleagues whom i had to keep in close contact with as part of my job and he realized oh yeah and quickly added the Canadian LD add-on to my work cell phone, it was much cheaper for the monthly LD Add on than the per-minute rate we were getting charged and it worked out well
There are some cell phone providers which if you dial 10 digits without the 1 prefix and its long distance, it will still connect your call anyways, some play a message first reminding you that you forgot the 1, some don't they just connect you like that. Soon long distance will be a thing of the past with the popularity of Skype, Whats App, Google Duo, Face Time etc.
Back in the '70s, my work would occasionally take me to Armstrong, north of Thunder Bay. Shortly before my first visit there, they changed from 2 to 5 digit dialing. Incidentally, that was one town where my employer, CN Telecommunications, carried the Bell trunks into town. They were then passed on to the Bell exchange, which at that time was located in a trailer. They were in a trailer, as Bell had just taken over from the local company and it was easier to send the new exchange up in a trailer, rather than build on site.
End to end VOIP, their is no switching just routing. LD charges and even phone numbers are becoming obsolete. Inevitably we will just tap on the calling party name or photo. I do that already with FB Messenger calling, voice or video, although i hate video calling. You can call to anyone in the world for free. Nothing is better than free. I am curious though is Ma Bell is still using old style switching in any of their COs at all now, or if they have entirely converted over to VOIP. Rogers is 100 percent VOIP withing their own network.
^^^^
VoIP uses addresses similar to email, that is something like 1234567890@phonecompany.com, but can use full text, just like email.
As for the phone company, they'd have to move away from the old switches, otherwise they'd need to do a lot of conversion between the old system and VoIP, which would block some of the VoIP features, such as better CODECs and video calls. I don't know how much of the old stuff they have left, but it's going to cost them a lot to keep it going in a world of VoIP. As I mentioned, anyone on Fibe is on VoIP and Bell is phasing out the old "twisted pair" phone lines.
VoIP and video calling / audio calling apps are free and really great but we still need to make phone calls via the traditional cell phone and LD calls cus of people like my grandmother still has a telephone and yes its a landline. Try convincing my old granny to switch to a tablet or smart phone with video calling apps, nope wont happen. not in this life.
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