we the people i really appreciate your listening
uh... barbara fisher thanks a lot for engineering and all of you out there
tonight with you tomorrow we're going to talk about uh... oh we're going to talk
about the enola gay and why the american people are denied the right
to know about the most significant historical event of the 20th century
in commemoration of international woman's month the 40th anniversary of the independence of ghana
and in solidarity with the democratic forces in the congo zaire the patrice lamoma coalition is
issuing a call to all the movement revolutionaries working class oppressed and freedom-loving people
to attend an african international forum generations of resistance against imperialism
in the heart of mother africa a rally to support the legacy of patrice lamoma
and a reception for his son friday march 7th from 6 30 p.m. until 10 p.m. at the harriet
telman learning center 127th street and adam clayton powell jr boulevard in harlem special
guest of honor francois emery lamoma president of congo's national movement
special invited guest speakers marcus garvey jr dr beli shabazz
kwami torrey dr rashida absmeli abubaka
faola plumber ilunga colanzo samori marksman kimati dinazulu and ilambe brans
for further information call area code 212-663-3805
that's area code 212-663-3805
it's eight o'clock this is wbai in new york coming up next on off the hook new york city
in crisis
the telephone keeps ringing so i ripped it off the wall
i cut myself while shaving now i can't make a call
it couldn't get much worse
but if they could they would
bumbinley bump are the best expect for us
i hope that's understood
bumbinley bump
going so
we'll see you then
dove
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
Coming to you live from the studios of WBAI in New York City.
New York City, the town that was plunged into a crisis last week with the announcement that the 212 area code is on the verge of exhaustion.
We'll be discussing what that means.
We'll be taking suggestions from you on what we can do about it and looking together at the future and what it holds and how we can get through this thing together.
But first, a couple of news items of interest.
We talked about the Croatian hackers last week, and we have an official rebuttal from the U.S. Defense Department.
They've flatly denied a report that high school computer hackers in Croatia broke Pentagon protection codes and copied highly classified files from U.S. military bases.
They did not.
The Croatian newspaper was in error on that issue.
Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters in response to questions.
They have been neutralized.
They will not bother us again.
Neutral?
Well, they didn't actually say that, but it was in his eyes.
They did apparently get into some computers at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, but to the best of my knowledge, they did not get into any classified files.
It was entirely unclassified territory.
Yes.
So to the best of his knowledge, they didn't get into any classified...
You've got to read between the lines here.
For all we know, they just hit a website.
To the best of his knowledge, they didn't get into any classified files, but if there aren't any classified files, how could they even have gotten into them without his knowledge?
You know, he's saying basically that there were classified files there, and he just hopes, he's praying to whatever God he believes in, that they didn't get into them.
This man is very scared.
So he's agreeing that there were files that were classified.
He's admitting that they are totally owned by these Croatian hackers, okay?
The Defense Department is on its knees right now.
And I just wonder what the future holds for this country.
I don't think the New York City crisis is really going to measure up to this one.
It's a dark day, that's for sure.
Anyway, he said the matter was being investigated by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
Oh, the OSI, our old friends.
Those are the ones that they can't figure out.
Those are the special investigations.
Yeah.
But I'm not aware that action has been taken against these fellows, whom I believe are teenagers at this time.
Well, yeah, at this time, they're teenagers.
Two years, though, it's going to be a different story.
Yeah, they could be full-grown adults.
Yeah, absolutely.
The Zagreb Daily Unpronounceable said on Wednesday the three...
Unpronounceable?
I tried last week, and it's just not even worth getting into.
Okay.
It said on Wednesday the three high school students surfing the Internet on their home computer
applied a search program and deciphered codes barging into the database of several U.S. military installers.
Have you ever had a database of yours get barged into?
It's rude.
I can't say it's happened, personally.
We should not before going into a database, especially if it's not yours.
Anyway, the databases included those of the Anderson Nuclear Installation and an unnamed satellite research center.
So that's the story there, as far as that goes.
What else?
Okay, how about this?
This is kind of funny.
With telephone fraud in the United States costing $3.7 billion a year and rising at double-digit rates...
Are you aware of this?
Double-digit rates.
Double-digit rates.
Telephone fraud is rising.
And this is according to whose statistics?
Well, I'm getting to that.
Okay.
Bell Atlantic today...
Oh.
Actually, a couple days ago, called on industry rivals nationwide to band together to develop
ways to stop the menace.
In an unprecedented call for cooperation, the company urged all telecommunications carriers
to join the alliance to outfox phone fraud.
Can you believe they used the word outfox in the name of a company?
The alliance...
And it doesn't even spell anything.
A-O-P-F.
How do you even say that?
It's not like a clever thing.
The alliance to outfox phone fraud.
Who thought of that?
Who thought of that?
Come on.
I mean, Madison Avenue would never tolerate something like that.
Definitely.
I mean, you think maybe their logo is like a little fox or something hunting down phone
freak type people?
Well, let's hope they use the fox part to their advantage.
Anyway, created three years ago, the alliance is a broad-based international group of telecommunications
companies and related businesses whose goal is to create consumer awareness about telephone
fraud and its prevention.
Oh, here we go.
Okay.
I was right.
The animated character, Freddy the Phone Fraud Fox.
Freddy the Phone Fraud Fox.
That's amazing.
I should be on the board of directors here.
I was able to see that one a mile away.
He serves as the official mascot for the public awareness campaign.
We got it.
We got to get this letterhead or, you know, whatever, whatever Freddy the Phone Fraud Fox
does.
I want to see this.
Anyway, in addition to Bell Atlantic, alliance members include the American Public Communications
Council, Bell Corps Communications Fraud Control Association, Hewlett Packard, Illinois
Consolidated Telephone Company, Intelligence Switched Systems of Canada, 9X, Pacific Bell Park
Region Mutual Telephone Company, Pennsylvania Telephone Association, Public Service Telephone
Company, and Southwestern Bell.
The alliance is a key way for the growing number of carriers in the nation to pool their
resources and share information about phone fraud occurrence and tips on prevention.
Phone fraud has gone beyond tumbling or guessing at wireless phone numbers to cloning of wireless
phones.
The latest and fastest growing type of fraud is subscription fraud, which affects both wireline
and wireless carriers.
Such fraud can occur when a user provides the carrier with a false address, identification,
or credit rating, and then makes long-distance phone calls on their account.
In other words, they lie.
They say that they're that person, and then they get information, and they get credit in
their name and things like that.
Not really having much to do with phones or phone freaking or anything like that.
But anyway, if you want more information about the alliance or if you want to join, should
we join?
You can call 1-800-9-OUTFOX.
Oh, come on.
Let's do it.
You ready?
Yeah.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
I've got to see what these people are all about.
What if they have a voicemail system?
Got to look at the letters on the phone here.
1-800-9-OUTFOX.
Hi, I'm Freddy.
Thanks for calling the alliance to help Fox phone fraud.
Please let us know how you heard about the alliance.
Leave your name, address, phone number, and the purpose of your call, and one of my colleagues
will get right back to you.
Hang on.
Watch this.
Zero.
It's not a valid entry.
Well, let's see what it is.
Hi, I'm Freddy.
Okay.
Thanks for calling the alliance to help Fox phone fraud.
Hi, I'm Freddy.
Thanks for calling the alliance to help Fox phone fraud.
Please let us know how you heard about it.
Ooh.
To send your message, press 1.
To re-record your message, press 2.
To review your message, press 3.
For delivery options, press 9.
To cancel your message, press star.
Okay, let's hear it first.
To send your message, press 1.
To re-record your message, press 2.
Message canceled.
Okay.
Thank you for calling.
Goodbye.
That's the end of that.
Okay, well, they have a voicemail system, and this looks like it could be hours of fun,
but maybe you shouldn't deal with those people as far as playing around voicemail systems.
I don't know, but what do you think it costs to join?
I'd like to outfox them.
There should be free dues, I think.
Free dues.
Yeah.
Okay, sure.
I got news for you.
The people that go around combating phone fraud are the ones that make the most money.
Okay?
And the reason they make money is because people fear the things that they're preaching about.
It's like religion.
It's a lot like religion.
Okay?
You go around, you're preaching about, you know, Satan and all that kind of thing.
And you are Satan.
Yeah, and you ask for money, and people give you money, and then you go around and, you
know, if Satan stopped existing, okay, these religions would be very upset because they'd
have nothing to, you know, raise money against.
Same thing with phone fraud companies.
Whatever they're called.
I don't know.
Just like Satan.
I'm sure I'm going to be getting all kinds of letters about this, but, yeah, well, that's
just the way it goes.
Okay.
The Dallas Morning News.
You hear about this one?
Well, they scooped themselves, supposedly.
Okay?
They had a story.
They were afraid that if they printed this story that they'd get an injunction from Timothy
McVeigh's lawyers saying, do not print this story about how he confessed.
So, what they did was, they put it on the World Wide Web.
They put it on their web page saying that they had this particular information.
And then, because it was already on the web, they reported on that.
So, they kind of used tactics that we've been using for years as far as getting stories
out instantly and then making that into a story, you know, yourself.
And, uh, it's resulted in quite a lot of, uh, press, publicity, things like that.
And, this story from MSNBC, the Dallas Morning News joined the company of Kevin Mitnick and
Robert Morris on Monday by facing allegations of computer hacking.
But there's a big distinction.
Mitnick, Morris, and others in the Hacker Hall of Fame have been successfully prosecuted by
federal authorities for violating laws against computer fraud and abuse, while Monday's allegations
against the Morning News came from a defense lawyer concerned that leaked information was
damaging his client's case.
Um, he accused the newspaper of violating three federal statutes by gaining unauthorized access
to computer files gathered by the defense team.
He indicated that those files were the basis of the newspaper's Friday story, which quoted
McVeigh as acknowledging that he planned the bombing that killed 168 people in April 1995.
Now, um, the Morning News said the documents were notes made by a defense team member during
the interview in which McVeigh was quoted as saying he timed the bombing for daylight hours
to ensure a higher body count.
Uh, since they are at best second-hand notes prepared for the benefit of McVeigh's counsel,
they could not be used during the trial.
It's, uh, interesting, though, because I'm not really getting a straight story from anybody
as to how they got this.
Yeah.
Where's the hacking?
Well, I guess they, they, they got into a computer or something.
I'm not sure exactly what, what they're being accused of.
They could have slipped a floppy in the guy's machine when he was in the toilet.
I suppose.
I suppose that's, that's possible.
Or the person might not be still working for that particular, uh, legal firm.
It's possible.
And maybe he just gave it out that way.
But, uh, I'm not seeing in either the accusations or the defense just what it is that they did.
They're saying that they got it through legitimate means, but they're legitimate means that
they can't say what they are.
And meanwhile, the accusations are saying that they hacked into a computer system and got this
information, but they can't tell us exactly what they did.
Ah, that's just the headlines talking.
So, basically, we have this headline out there that everybody's interested in, but nobody
knows where it came from.
It's, uh, it's, it's kind of, kind of wacky.
All right.
And, um, let's see.
One other thing, and then we'll get on to, uh, to our main topic of the day.
With the launch of five markets for Sprint PCS in February.
Oh, it's February now.
Well, you know, I don't understand, because this is March, and this story came out in
March.
And it's saying, well, I guess, okay, they have already launched.
They've launched, they just haven't launched here.
So, they have launched somewhere on the planet.
Yeah.
Okay, I can tell you where, too.
Okay.
Uh, Sprint PCS has launched in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Little Rock, Arkansas, uh, Des Moines,
Iowa.
Oh, Des Moines.
Yeah, at that place.
And the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Somebody must have given them some bad data as to where the customers are.
Well, that's, that's where they're doing business right now.
Aren't they, aren't they based out of, uh, what was the first city that you said?
Uh, Tulsa?
Oklahoma City?
They, they have an office there.
I believe so, yes.
Yeah.
It's Nortel 1900 megahertz CDMA PCS networks.
They're serving Sprint PCS subscribers in those areas.
Uh, Nortel is building 800 and 1900 megahertz CDMA digital wireless networks for such customers
as Sprint PCS, AirTouch, BCTel Mobility, and Bell Mobility, which will ultimately reach
more than 60 million potential subscribers in 28 North American cities.
Um, they don't say when they're going to be in New York.
They should have been here by now.
But we'll keep, we'll keep looking for them.
The Sprint PCS, it's on the way.
And maybe, maybe that will lead to some competition.
Uh, David is just, he's back.
You notice he came back from England.
We sent him there on assignment.
No, we didn't send him there.
We can't send people to the corner, okay?
So don't think that we're sending people around the world.
You were in California on assignment and you, you discovered there's no PCS service out
there at all.
No, actually, I found, what I did find out is, um, that there is no such thing as Pacific
Bell Mobile anymore.
Or it's now, I think it was AirTouch or something.
Well, that's one of the companies I just mentioned.
Right, yeah.
AirTouch.
AirTouch, which I don't know who that is.
They're taking away the regionalism in the, in the names.
Right.
AirTouch.
And, yeah, no more Pacific anything.
Well, a lot of people in New York have problems writing checks to something that says Pacific.
Yeah.
You know, so AirTouch was no problem at all.
Well, the problem that I had, my problem was twofold.
First problem I had was that since I was a prepay customer with Omnipoint, they claim
that I did not have permission to roam as a prepay customer.
Well, they have you on a leash?
So that was a problem.
Am I allowed to go anywhere?
That's what they said.
Well, after six months, I get re-evaluated, uh, as a, as a decent paying customer and I'll
get converted to a regular customer.
Okay.
And, um, so that, that, I had that going against me.
Then I was told that even if, even if I was able to roam, that, uh, a problem out there
that the AirTouch, Pacific Bell Mobile, whatever you want to call them, people were having, is
that the police department in Alameda County are using 1900 megahertz for something or another.
Well, who told them they could do that?
Apparently they're not doing it with permission.
Well, I mean, that's just, that's just rude.
Yeah.
Police barging into 1900 megahertz.
It's horrible.
Wow.
So who knows if that little signal indicator on the phone is the police or whether it's
AirTouch.
You know how everybody got beeps from crazy places a few weeks ago because somebody entered
the wrong pin?
You could be getting 911 calls on your PCS phone now.
It would be chaos and mayhem.
That's certainly what it looks like.
David, you're back from England.
What, what's the, what's the PCS situation like over there?
Well, over in England, there's a lot of choices.
There are tons, tons of phones, uh, tons of accessories.
And because of all the competition, there are tons of pricing schemes and strategies.
Um, it works out with the dollar exchange.
It's to be, be somewhat expensive because over in England, if you want to get a phone or buy
a phone to own, you have, um, you can get it cheaply if you buy it with a connection service.
Okay.
Which can be expensive.
It can run anywhere from, um, $40 a month to $250 a month.
Now granted, with the high, the high end, you'll get like 540 minutes, you know, of what they call
free time, but you are paying for it.
But it comes as a package.
How much would something like that cost?
540 free minutes.
Uh, $270 American.
That's, that's quite a lot.
That's quite a lot.
It, it, um, it works out with, when you add up all the tariffs, that it's quite expensive.
Now what I found from one company was that if I wanted to buy the phone that I have from
Omnipoint, which in England would be the Nokia 2110i, I could get it for $140 if I paid, um,
to have it connected right then and there.
And then the, the phone would be mine through that period of connection, but I couldn't own
the phone.
If I wanted to buy the phone outright, it would cost me 405 English pounds, which would be
equivalent to about $760.
Oh, that's, that's pretty outrageous.
That's pretty pricey.
What if you already own the phone, though?
What if you go over there now with the phone you now own and say you want to connect to
service?
Well, the phone that I now own is not a hybrid phone, so it only works at, at, uh, 1900
PCS, which is not going to do anything for me over in England.
Right.
Because they're 1800.
Right.
Correct.
Uh-huh.
Now it's sort of difficult in England to buy a phone without service.
So they sort of ask you when you want to get your phone hooked up, you know, if you
have some sort of receipt of service or receipt for the phone.
Well, but they use the same type of service all throughout Europe, don't they?
All different places.
Um.
So, I mean, you could buy something in, say, uh, Bulgaria, right?
And if you do that, then you just bring it over to England and say you lost your receipt.
Well, the beautiful thing is there's so many different stores.
Works at the whiz, anyway.
You'd have, you'd have to find, find, uh, a merchant who would be willing to, to service
you.
But they ask a lot of questions.
Um.
They're very leery about if you come in with a phone.
Mm-hmm.
They ask, they start asking like half a dozen questions about where you got it, who's, you
know, what services it hooked up on, what the number was.
So they're still in the suspicious mode.
Oh.
They haven't quite gotten out of that yet.
Well, I found a couple of shops because I found some people who met, um, met me over there
and took me around.
Mm-hmm.
And what's beautiful about London is there's this one street called Tottenham Court Road.
Ah, yes.
And you just walk down, it's, you know, familiarly known as TCR.
Mm-hmm.
And you just walk down this one street on each side of the street, there's like at least
a dozen or two dozen stores.
And I was able to go in and out and like play one against the other and get really good
prices on accessories that aren't available here.
Uh-huh.
Um, the bad thing about all different phone systems are that you have to walk around like
I did with three different phones for the week strapped to your belt, you know, depending
on where you are and what part of, part of London, some services work and some don't.
You did notice, though, that more people over there use these phones than here.
Um.
Almost every, one in three people seem to be using a cellular phone or a PCS phone.
Well, it works out to be cheaper in some instances because they meter all the calls there.
Mm-hmm.
So, um, a local call, you know, that spans maybe, I don't know, two or three kilometers,
depending on where you're calling, you know, can cost anywhere from 50p, which would be
about, um, I don't know, about 80, 85 cents.
Right.
Up to sometimes a pound, a pound 15.
I mean, there's a wide variance.
And also, when I was talking, uh, with someone from, uh, regular, uh, POTS line to their,
uh, cell phone, uh, they, they asked me to please, like, hang up and dial, dial their
landline because, um, they told me they were getting charged between 50p and a pound a minute.
You know, for me to...
For you calling them.
Right.
Because I know there's services where you call them and they, you wind up paying, they
don't pay.
Right.
The thing is, there's no uniform structure.
Uh-huh.
Um, in some cases, you'll get, like, free weekends, you get these, some special deals,
but that's not a regular occurrence.
Okay.
Um, and...
So you have to, you have to shop around quite a bit.
There's, I mean, there's at least five or six different systems out there.
Mm-hmm.
And what's nice is there's a, uh, a magazine called What Mobile.
Yeah.
Which publishes, like, two, two-page spread of all the different tariffs that tells you how
much each phone call is going to cost you.
Um, and there's one, two, three, four, there are eight.
There are eight different services, um, ranging from CDMA to PCS to GSM to analog to, you know,
a hybrid analog and digital.
Basically, they're ahead of us, aren't they, as far as all this kind of thing goes.
Yeah.
It gets really quite confusing.
I mean, what's easy about here in New York City is, you know, it's Omnipoint.
I guess so.
Omnipoint.
Well, um, I've shown you the Bell South, uh, rates that, uh, I talked about last week.
And, um, I still think that nothing beats those.
Well, Mark and I were talking about this earlier.
Yeah.
The fact that Bell South is a phone company, so they don't, they're, they get to get around
a couple of things like the tariffs.
Yeah, they don't have, they don't have to pay themselves tariffs to, to connect to landlines.
Well, I mean, aren't there, aren't there, uh, certain things in effect to prevent a company
from having an unfair advantage, like a phone company?
Not in their case.
I don't know.
Um, I mean, I'm not aware of another company in Bell South area trying to compete and not
being able to because Bell South has an unfair advantage.
Well, I don't think it's a question of not being able to.
I think anybody is equally allowed to.
The thing is that, why bother?
If what you say is true, why isn't Ninex in the, in the business of this?
Uh, locally?
Yeah.
I mean, you know, it sounds like they could, uh, they could have the market to themselves.
Yeah, but I think that kind of goes without saying.
Yeah, but they're, they're not doing anything.
No.
Uh, well, it's Bell Atlantic Ninex Mobile.
Okay, well, whatever they're called.
I think the thing you should remember is that the Bell Atlantic comes first.
I don't think Ninex is very much saying that.
Uh-huh.
But, um, there are competitors in Bell Atlantic.
Bell Atlantic Ninex Mobile itself does not offer any sort of GSM service.
Are they planning to?
I haven't heard any word that they are even planning to.
There's a company in the, uh, D.C. Virginia area, which does, I think the name of it was
APC or something like that.
Uh-huh.
And, um, and they, they offer, uh, GSM service.
And just, just to wrap this up, because we've got to get onto the crisis that's facing New
York City.
Right.
Um, AT&T, their PCS service is not, we should differentiate.
Yeah, we should differentiate.
Not really PCS service.
No, it's just PCS-like service.
Okay.
What they're, what AT&T is offering is, uh, PCS-like features over the existing digital
cellular network.
Okay.
And, and, and, and 25 words or less, why should that matter to anybody using the service,
whether it's PCS or PCS-like?
Well, number one is you're not using the handy-dandy little SIM cards, the little smart cards in the
phone.
Right.
It's just a regular digital cordless with PCS features.
So, you have these custom calling features, like, I'm assuming, like, email and things
like that, and station-to-station messages that you, that you'd expect from a GSM phone.
Uh-huh.
Only it's on a regular old-fashioned digital cellular phone.
Okay.
Not GSM.
Okay.
The other thing is that you don't have the expectation of privacy that you have with
GSM.
There isn't any kind of black box cryptography going on with, uh, digital cellular.
It's just, it's digital.
You can't listen in on it, though, can you?
What, digital cellular?
Yes.
You simply need a little more expensive equipment.
Okay.
Well, we'll, uh, get details on what that equipment is.
Uh, yes, we've got to get into this other, other story.
I don't want to spend all...
Just one last thing.
Yes.
Uh, because of a lot of the, a lot of the fraud that's been taking place, um, they have
now stopped in, uh, England taking online, uh, registration on, on the actual phone itself
for accounts.
Oh, good for them.
Yeah.
I wouldn't have ever taken that.
That's, uh, you know, just, just today, I got mail from, from some, I won't mention the
company.
I don't want to embarrass them.
I really don't.
I got, I got mail today in the U.S. mail from some company billing me for, for a couple
hundred bucks for software, and it gave all the information.
All the information was fake, that whoever, this person typed in, typed in, and the phone
numbers were 555 numbers, the zip codes were like, they had letters in them.
It's so obvious that it's wrong, but they just have this, this web registration thing
going on, and they just accept any data whatsoever and blindly send it out to whoever asks for
it.
So, uh, you got to wonder, you know, do these companies, can they really qualify as victims
of anybody but themselves?
I don't know.
So, okay, let's get to the, to the main thrust of today's show, which, um, is the crisis facing
New York City that was announced last week, and that is that, friends, we are running
out of room in the 2-on-2 area code.
Some of you apparently have been hogging numbers, and now we all have to pay the piper because
of that.
To quote from the New York Times article in the Life Gets More Complicated department, 9X
said that by the end of next year, some Manhattanites could lose area code 2-on-2, and that all
of them, all of us, may well have to dial 11 digits to reach our friends uptown, around
the block, next door, or even upstairs.
They're going to bring in a new area code, 6-4-6.
That's right, 6-4-6.
Well, that's one of the plans.
There's a couple of different plans, but the main plan is to bring in 6-4-6 and have some
sort of geographically, uh, recognizable boundary.
Uh, some people are saying 42nd Street, some people are saying 5th Avenue, some people
are saying 125th Street.
Now, the problem with 125th Street is that that's only going to buy us a little bit of
time.
Uh, there's one plan that says, okay, forget about 6-4-6, make everybody above 125th Street
7-1-8, and, uh, you know, let them join the Bronx and, and Queens and, and, and Brooklyn
and Staten Island.
Uh, so that would get rid of the need for 6-4-6, but that would only buy us about a year
before 2-on-2 runs out of space.
Uh, now, here's, uh, here's another option.
The other option is that all new service would be given 6-4-6.
So if you get a new telephone, you have 6-4-6 area code, even if you're in the same house
as a 2-on-2 number.
Uh, the advantage, um, to this option is that no current 9X customers in Manhattan would have
to change their numbers, the new code could be applied to all new lines, including cellular
phones and pagers, which are currently assigned 917 area codes, and it could accommodate, uh,
new customers for up to six and a half years, according to 9X.
Now, here's the weird thing, okay?
The catch to that is some FCC regulation, which I don't understand the, the reason behind.
Maybe you could explain this to me.
Uh, that says anyone in a region where an area code overlay exists, overlay is, is what we
just described, where it's two area codes in the same, same area.
Um, they are required to dial the area code for all local calls.
In other words, to ensure equal inconvenience to all, that's what they say here, to ensure
equal inconvenience to all, everyone in Manhattan would have to dial 1 and then the area code
and then the number, even when calling to a 2-on-2 area code from a 2-on-2 area code.
I don't know that that's necessarily true.
I mean, we have an overlay area code, even though it's not physically anywhere.
That's not an overlay.
9-1-7.
That's not considered an overlay.
They don't consider 9-1-7 overlay.
I don't think so.
That's some other kind, there's another term for it, but overlay is when, when there's
two equal types of area codes in the same area and that everybody that has a new number
in that area gets the new area code.
The only time I've ever heard of where you actually had to dial 1 plus the area code you
were in in order to reach somebody was in certain places, mainly further out west, where
an area code spans beyond the ladder borders.
Okay.
So say, for example, there's two different regions, two different regional calling areas
with two different rate structures, yet the same area code.
If you're in the first ladder, you could call anybody you want just by dialing in seven digits.
If you're trying to call somebody in the other ladder, even though it's the same area
code, you need the 1 plus the same area code to indicate that it's a toll call.
Right.
Right.
That's mostly to get around their, their archaic equipment.
Right.
So that they know how to charge you and things like that.
Well, in the past four years, the demand for numbers in the 2-1-2 area code has more
than tripled, according to 9X Executive Vice President.
But it's not just a local phenomenon.
States like Connecticut and Arizona, rather, once area code unified, they had the same
area code for the entire state, have recently been divided.
It's estimated by 2025, the entire country will likely run out of numbers and the phone
system will have to be remapped according to some other plan, say eight digit local numbers
instead of seven.
Now, you see, that's what I think they should have done for this particular crisis before
this ever happened.
Now, last year, they, they expanded the area codes to not have one or zero in the middle.
Right.
All right.
Confused everybody.
You know, nobody knows where anything is anymore.
What?
3-2-0.
That's Minnesota.
7-3-2.
That's going to be part of New Jersey.
Yeah, we're going to remember that.
Sure.
You know?
And 6-4-6.
I don't see how people are going to, going to be able to remember 6-4-6, you know, even
within Manhattan.
What they should have done is added a couple of numbers to the local numbers.
Okay?
Since we already have this bizarre phone system, which doesn't really match anything else in the
world, I think just adding a number or two would have created so many new possibilities
that we wouldn't have had to, you know, split any area.
The problem with that is that it's not downward compatible.
Uh-huh.
It's not downward compatible to the older switching systems that might exist and might still exist.
Why is it that we seem to always be crippled by the capacity of these older systems?
Well, why is Windows 95 still compatible with us?
Don't get me started on that.
That's, uh, that's, that's the way it is, I guess.
Yeah.
We'd like to know from our listeners how they think this particular problem should be
dealt with.
How do you feel?
Would you be comfortable in 6-4-6?
Do you think the dividing line should be someplace?
Are there other suggestions that, uh, you might have, uh, as far as, I can hardly wait to
hear what Rebel comes up with.
Yeah.
Well, we should just clarify, though, that, that by Belcourt's projections.
Right.
Well, 2-1-2 is not going to be exhausted until the fourth quarter of 1999, so it's not like
this is going to happen tomorrow.
They're saying 1998, they're going to do this.
Oh, according to Belcourt's website, which I visited this evening, it said a fourth quarter
of 1999, they expected it.
Well, 9X says at the end of 1998 or the beginning of 1999, Manhattan will run out of phone numbers.
Oh, we'll see who's right.
Now, you used to be part of 2-1-2.
I used to be a long time ago, uh, back when I lived in Queens, and it was in the, uh, the
early 80s, they, uh, they created 718, and, uh, they gave us all buttons to try to make
us, you know, feel better.
Uh-huh.
In the mail, it said, I am a 718, it's not long distance.
That's what all the, all the buttons said.
Wow.
But it did, it did hurt, didn't it?
Yeah, it was, uh, you know, all the, all the, all the stickers on all the phones had
to be changed, that said 2-1-2, and, you know, it was, it was chaos and mayhem.
But, I mean, the social stigma, you weren't really considered the same.
We weren't part of the city anymore.
As 2-1-2.
Yeah.
You looked down upon.
We were merely bridge and tunnel people.
People across the country knew that you weren't really in Manhattan.
Yeah.
Because you were 718.
And the Bronx was 2-1-2 for a while, and then.
Yep, then they got moved.
Then they got moved as well.
Yeah.
So, uh, it's, it, this is not something that, uh, is to be taken lightly.
No, but at least 718 looks like an area code.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, it does.
718 does.
718 does.
646.
We gotta, I don't know off the top of my head, but we gotta find out where in Manhattan
6466 change is, because those are the people that are gonna get all the prank calls.
Well, we can find out right now, I guess.
Yes, uh, let's see if we can get them on the line.
Uh, okay, well, we can't get a line there.
Let's try that again.
Okay.
We dial 646.
And then 9901.
That should tell us where it is.
We're sorry.
The number you have reached is not in service.
Uh-oh.
Please check the number and dial again.
You know, that's what I thought it was.
Yeah.
That's like a beeper.
But what's it doing in area code 212?
646, I don't, I don't know.
I think we just found an illegal beeper service.
Yeah, well.
It's supposed to be a 917.
They should have all been moved by now.
Yeah, it's because of, because of things like that, because of things like that that we
ran out of phone numbers in the first place.
Oh, well.
Anyway, okay, so 646.
Do you think that's the best choice they could come up with?
I don't.
I think they could come up with something much better.
No, I don't, I don't know.
I didn't actually look over the list of what's still available.
Who is it that decides?
Who says 646 is what Manhattan gets?
The North American Numbering Plan Association.
There is the person that says 646.
Oh, the one single person?
There's got to be somebody that comes up with it.
You know.
Well, it must be somebody at Bellcore says, you know, how about this?
And 9X says, and we don't like that.
How about this?
Okay, is the area code, what is it, 692?
Is that taken?
I don't know.
It spells NYC.
692.
Easy.
NYC, seven digits.
It's like a good domain on the internet.
It's probably taken.
What, do you think there's a 692 area code someplace?
Could very well be.
I don't think so.
Try information.
Well, information charges money, so I'm going to try the operator.
Okay.
Okay, hold on.
Actually, you know, I think the operator has this scam going where they connect you to information
when you ask a question like this.
Let's find out.
This is weird.
I think we'll get a human.
You know you'll get a human when they don't answer.
Hi, I think.
May I help you?
Uh, yes, hi.
I need to know where area code 692 is.
Okay.
We can connect you directly.
They can tell you that if you'd like.
Okay, thank you.
That's all I thought.
Hold on.
I see what's going on here.
9X?
Uh, yes.
Hi.
Is this information?
Yes, it is.
I'm looking to know where the area code 692 is.
692, one moment, please.
Thank you very much.
That's not an area code.
It's not an area code.
No, it's an exchange in one of the, um, it's either in Long Island or in Manhattan, but it's
not an area code.
Okay, uh, while I have you, can you tell me if 646 is an exchange in New York?
Hold on, please.
Thank you.
646 is an exchange in Manhattan.
It's in downtown Manhattan.
It's in downtown Manhattan.
Yes.
Okay, thank you very much.
You're welcome, sir.
Bye-bye.
Well, that was one of my more profitable calls with information, but, uh, okay, so, 692,
uh, what is it, 692?
Yeah.
I mean, that's just a thought, but there might be better ones out there.
I think our listeners might have some suggestions.
212-279-3400 is our phone number, but for how long?
Could I say 646-279?
I can't even say it.
It doesn't feel right.
Sounds confusing.
It's like saying President Reagan.
It's just never quite caught with me.
You'll have to start saying 1+, so people know, like, when you're done saying the number.
And that's the other thing.
With all these crazy area codes and 10-digit dialing, why do we even need 1+, anymore?
Why do we...
People come here from other countries, right, and we give them phone numbers.
We give them phone numbers in area codes, in parentheses, rather, area codes in parentheses,
and we don't tell them that they have to dial a 1 first.
Do you know how confused they get?
I've seen people in tears at airports, trying to figure it out.
You know, they're at Kennedy Airport, they're trying to call somebody in 212, and they just
never get it, because they don't think they have to dial the country code before the...
Which is what it is.
Yeah.
One is the country code.
They have to dial that before the area code to get through.
So it's quite crazy.
We're going to go to the phones.
David, do you have something?
Yeah, there was a segment on television over the weekend about this, and they had a Bell
Atlantic spokesperson on saying that in some parts of Jersey, it may work out that people
would have to dial two area codes, because of overlays, to dial a local number.
Now, what's funny was, Bell Atlantic was saying this, yet they had, right afterwards, someone
from 9X in one of their control rooms saying that, no, no, no, this is all scare tactics,
you know, by other Rboxes...
What do you mean, dial two area codes?
Why would you just dial two area codes?
Because they said that the way they were doing these overlays, that they had people in the
beginning would have to dial, for example, let's say the area code was 343 and 646, they'd
have to dial 343, 646, then the phone number, and they started to have these posters up and
billboards from Bell Atlantic talking about, you know, 10-digit phone numbers, hey, your combination
lock for your gym locker, you know, is more confusing than that.
And this is the actual, billboards are going up about...
I think some sort of aliens have invaded these people's minds, and that's, they're just trying
to bring down the whole system, because I can't imagine dialing more than one area code
to get through to something.
I mean, carrier access codes are now seven digits.
That sounds like a confused spokesperson.
It sure does.
They should be reassigned.
Let's go to the phones.
212-279-3400.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hello.
Yeah, speak up.
Oh, boy, I don't know where to start.
There are four people at Bell Corps who decide on new area codes.
There were formerly five.
They're four now.
They're called, logically enough, numbering plan administrators.
By the way, do you have a copy of New York Telephone Company, that's still their legal name,
report to the Public Service Commission in Case 96C-1158 on the upcoming split of the 212 area code?
Fifty-eight, you say?
96C-1158.
No, I don't have 58 here.
Tell us what's in that one.
Maybe you should call Mr. Jerome M. Balsam's office on 212-395-6507
and ask a secretary for a copy of it.
Well, have you seen it?
I have it in front of me.
What's contained within it?
Well, it goes, let's see, conservation procedures, alternatives, geographic split options,
including the northern Manhattan geographic split.
That would be, let's see, that would be, hold on.
Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.
That would be, sorry.
You think he really has it?
Um, there's a possibility.
That would...
Could be the phone book he's flipping there.
No, no, no, okay, come on.
That, uh, okay, wait a minute.
Four, wait a minute.
Section, I should have just done it by page number.
Okay.
Oops, I'm sorry.
I think this is a bell-Atlantic toy to keep us from discussing.
Northern Manhattan geographic split.
That would have been roughly corresponding to 59th Street, but they also tell how, uh, what
an incredibly complicated and inconvenient thing that would be, because while they would
have to give something like, uh, a single street that everyone would know as a major
divider, like 59th or, in one of the other proposals, 42nd, that's a Midtown geographic
split, the next, uh, little chapter here, subchapter, um, uh, that the central office
lines are not divided along, whereas on, uh, Fifth Avenue apparently does divide a lot
of them east to west.
Anyway, so the Northern Manhattan geographic split is roughly along 59th.
The Midtown geographic split would be roughly along 42nd.
The Southern geographic split, as it's called, hold on, I think that's...
Along roughly Canal, give me a second here.
Well, everyone's south of Canal, we'll stay in 212, and everybody else will change.
Well, not quite, wait a minute, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.
Four, section 4.1.3, Southern Manhattan, Southern Manhattan geographic split alternative.
This alternative would also split Manhattan into North and South geographic area codes.
The Southern MPA, uh, numbering plan area, serving area, that we've got a new area code
would extend from the southern tip of Manhattan at the Battery North to Canal Street.
Hold on, the northern area would extend from Canal Street through the northern tip of the
island.
Boy, talk about the tiniest territory, area of any area code in North America.
Okay.
That would be pretty small.
This alternative would provide the Southern Manhattan financial community and government,
well, government offices, with a different area code from the rest of Manhattan.
The Southern Manhattan, composed of three central offices, Broad Street, West Street, including
Pearl Street.
I guess that means there's really two buildings, and the World Trade Center, and also parts
of the Varick Street central office.
Let me just ask you quickly, because we want to get through some more phone calls, but does
New York Telephone or 9X or whatever, do they come up with a preference of a particular
plan?
They do.
Recommendation, section 5.
But first, let me just quickly.
The Manhattan-L geographic split, which is 4.1.5.
Oh, okay.
4.1.4 is the east-west along 5th Avenue.
Hold on.
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bum.
Central 5th Street, northernmost tip of Manhattan.
Well, of course, it can't be the northernmost tip of Manhattan on 5th Avenue.
Its northern end is about 135th Street.
But anyway, it would run from the Harlem River and 135th down 5th Avenue to Central Park.
It would continue to Washington Square, then down west Broadway to Canal.
At Canal, it would turn right over.
Yeah, this is great.
I can remember all this.
To the Hudson River.
Well, no, that's easy.
5th Avenue, West Broadway.
She called this the Magic Bullet or something.
And Canal.
Okay, now that's the, ba-ba-bum, that was the 414.
That was the east-west.
The L.
Okay.
This one, wait a minute.
This would establish an L-shaped split for Manhattan.
It would use a boundary line running from the Hudson River east along Columbus.
Now, this is crazy, because Columbus Avenue runs north and south, so I don't know.
But east along Columbus Avenue to the north, they mean from the Hudson River to the northeast
corner of Central Park.
The boundary would turn and continue south along 5th Avenue to 23rd, where it would turn
east toward the East River.
The new area code was...
All right, sir.
This is fascinating, but we're running out of time.
I just got to ask you, which one do they prefer?
They prefer the only logical one.
I have to agree with them.
Recommendation, section 5, page 10.
Give me a second here.
By the way, you may remember back for the September 1st, 1984 split of between 2-1-2 and
7-1-8, that they proposed having everybody dial eight digits.
And I don't...
No, no.
If you were calling from other parts of the country, you would still have dialed 2-1-2
plus 7 digits or 7-1-8 plus 7 digits, but within the five boroughs, if you had a 2-1-2
code, you would have dialed the third digit of that, that is the second two, plus the
seven-digit Manhattan number.
And if you were in the other four boroughs, you would have dialed the eight of the 7-1-8
plus seven digits.
See how that works?
Well, that saves you a couple of numbers from within, but it doesn't solve anything as
far as the area code running out of numbers.
Why don't we respond to, why do we need the one?
Again, once everybody is dialing 3 plus 7 digits for all numbers...
We won't need the one.
...then we won't need it.
Right.
I cannot understand your objection to giving up the zero or one in the middle.
There was no other possible way to go.
By the way, cities all around the world are going to eight digits.
London, as you know...
Right.
...it's going to go 0-2-0 plus eight digits.
I just think we're seeing way too many splits, and I think it could have been dealt with a lot
more uniformly.
The average moron cannot handle more than seven digits.
Well, I don't know.
And that's why...
We'll have to ask some average morons.
Listen, we have to move on.
I'm sorry.
We have to get on to some more phone calls, because we only have 15 minutes left.
Okay.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Go ahead.
Speak up.
Okay.
You've got to speak up, folks.
That's the rule here, okay?
Put your ear on your phone, and when you hear my voice, that's when you start speaking.
Okay?
It's very simple.
The phone is ringing until we pick it up.
All right.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi.
Very good.
What's up?
I'm calling to find out, what is the number to make your phone ring in New Jersey in the
201 area code?
I don't know New Jersey off the top of my head.
I think it's 660 plus last four or last seven digits.
That's what it is in many places.
They might not.
We'll need some input from some New Jersey people.
Okay.
Thanks.
All right.
New Jersey people, I know this doesn't affect you at all, and you may think it's kind of,
you know, comical for us to be struggling with this here in New York City.
So, you know, if you have something to say about it, give us a call.
But please, we're talking about, you know, the crisis facing New York City with the 2-1-2
split.
I think one, I have two solutions.
All right.
One is to simply swap 2-1-2 and 7-1-8.
Okay?
That would preserve 2-1-2 and keep it in the hands of New Yorkers.
All right?
So everybody in 7-1-8 gets a 2-1-2 number like they had back in the old days.
All right?
And then 7-1-8 has to worry about exhaustion and all that, which nobody really cares about.
All right?
The other solution, and I think this is something 9X should pay strict attention to.
Okay.
You pay your bill late.
All right?
You pay your phone bill late.
Your number gets turned into a 646 number.
All right?
That could work.
Yeah, that could work really good.
Because not only do you label the people with this big scarlet 646 on their phone bill,
but you wind up getting better payment schedules from those people that want to preserve their 2-1-2 number.
More money coming in.
More honorable people.
You know where the dishonorable people live in.
You might have a rebellion.
Rebellions?
You know, that happens occasionally.
You've got to deal with that.
People start printing up T-shirts.
It's just a thought.
I think it's a lot better than that L-shaped thing going on.
That wasn't even an L.
Were you following this geography?
It was just like a...
It was a squiggle.
It was like a scar is what it was.
Yeah.
All right.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Now, you see, you didn't follow the rules, all right?
Come on.
Well, it's so hard.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello.
I have two things.
Yes.
One is it's kind of disgusting that, you know, the phone company is, you know,
they're complaining that it's not downgradable with, you know,
this is the phone service being able to have eight digits.
No, I'm claiming that because it's true.
That's completely disgusting.
Okay.
That's disgusting that they can't afford to upgrade their service, you know, for their customers.
Mm-hmm.
You know, because, you know, to help them, to help us, as far as customers,
and give us easier access to the phone system, they don't want to upgrade their system.
You see, in virtually every other country in the world, it works differently.
Phone numbers are variable length.
And it might sound confusing, but what it boils down to is that if you live in a small town,
you dial four numbers, and you have a longer city code.
So you wind up dialing the same number of numbers from outside the area, but it's divided up.
A four-digit city code is a small town, a two-digit city code is a big town, and they have longer phone numbers.
Well, when I lived upstate, we had to call, like, we had to dial one before just the local exchange of the next town over.
And they just ended that, like, two years ago.
Yeah.
But, you know, it's just, I'm saying, like, you know, they can't afford to change the system,
but we're going to end up having to change it anyway in the future, and it's going to cost more money,
because then it has to be done.
What would you like to see happen in this case?
I'd like to see one or two extra digits on every local phone number.
Uh-huh.
You know, and keep the area codes.
But, you know, then we have, like, it's like what they're doing with the IP addresses.
They're adding, you know, they're upgrading the IP addresses so you have more numbers on the end.
How are they upgrading the IP addresses?
They're coming out with IP version 6.
Yeah.
Okay.
And what will that mean to us?
Well, you'll have a longer address space than 32 bits.
Uh-huh.
What did they say?
There's, like, a trillion, or I don't remember how many actual digits it comes out to,
but there's, like, a trillion different combinations.
Well, the biggest problem with the current IP, which is version 4, is that...
Jesus.
Somebody's trying to call me.
Oh, unplug that thing.
Yeah.
The biggest problem with the IP version 4, the current version, is that when the net first came online,
and, you know, back in the late 60s, early 70s, they assigned a lot of Class A addresses,
which were addresses basically where the first number of the four was significant and the last three was not.
So they wasted a hell of a lot of addresses early on.
Okay.
We're getting into the wrong crisis here.
Yeah.
We'll save the IP crisis.
Different crisis.
Yeah, the IP crisis for another time.
But thanks for the call.
Let's continue talking about 212 and the problems that we face.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Speak up.
Okay.
I love hearing my voice, but not over the radio.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi.
I just wanted to talk about how maybe they should just add a number to the area code instead of adding numbers in the...
Now, there's an idea.
Four-digit area codes.
Like 2-1-2-2.
Yeah.
And then 2-1-2-1.
That is something...
I remember somebody suggesting that a few years ago.
What's so hard about that?
You add a 2 to every area code.
Yeah, something like that.
I think that would be a great idea.
That would probably be easier.
I mean, imagine if they had done that before they allowed all the other digits inside.
You'd be able to easily tell an area code.
You know?
It'd be, say, 2-7-1-8, 2-2-1-2, you know?
And then you make 2-2-1-3 or whatever.
Or 3-2-1-2.
Yeah, okay.
This is how it works, all right?
You add that 2 to the beginning of the area code, right?
2-2-1-2.
Then 2-1-2 runs out of numbers.
You have 3-2-1-2.
Then 4-2-1-2, et cetera, et cetera.
You always know 2-1-2 because it's always following that first digit.
And you could preserve everything.
But it's too late now because they already broke it.
How did they break it?
By splitting all these.
They have 7-3-2 in New Jersey now.
And you got, what, 8-6-0 in Connecticut.
And all these numbers, 9-5-4 in Florida.
You know, nobody can remember that.
That's true.
But would it be possible with the existing equipment to do that?
What, to have more than three-digit area code?
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, that should be possible.
That would be a lot easier to do.
Okay.
But that affects everybody in the country.
But, you know, I think it's better to affect everybody in the country once
rather than affect everybody ongoing forever, you know, in these little tiny splits.
Well, if you make, yeah, in the same way, if you make an 8-digit phone number, it affects
everybody in the country.
That's true.
Same way.
Yeah.
You got to add a digit somewhere eventually.
That's true.
Basically.
And so long as they can do it without adding numbers to the number, I mean, like...
Well, is it a harder matter to add numbers to the actual phone number to make it 8 digits
instead of 7 or to make area codes 4 digits instead of 3?
Are you going to talk about areas that are still using older switching equipment?
Uh-huh.
That stuff, like, with the 8-digit, they'd have to change all those, right?
Yeah.
That would be just something that isn't feasible.
Right.
Because the way that the older switching equipment works is that you have thousands, you have
hundreds, you have tens, and you have ones.
The way that the call actually gets switched in the last four digits.
When we're talking about older switching equipment, what are we talking about?
I'm talking about, like, pre-electronic.
I'm talking about, like, crossbars and stuff.
How many people are still on crossbars?
There's still lots of rural areas out there.
These rural people, they're dragging us back.
Yeah.
I should be careful.
Our show gets out to them now.
We love you guys, you farmers out there.
Yeah.
Wouldn't be anywhere without you.
Okay.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Okay.
All right.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello?
Yes, go ahead.
Yeah, I wanted to ask about the area code that they're having right now.
Uh-huh.
Um, why don't they just split up the reasons who's using what, like, pagers or 917 along
with cellular phones?
Well, they did that already.
Yeah, and, like, let's say, um, modem lines, like PC lines and all that, separate that in
one section, and, uh, PCS on another area code.
Well, PCS is on another area code.
They're on 917 as well.
917 isn't in danger of splitting.
Not right now, anyway.
Uh-huh.
The only thing I can think of them splitting is business and residential.
They could do that, I suppose.
Yeah, you know, try to, you know, because that's the reason why we're losing the numbers
is everybody's getting a phone for some piece of hardware on their table.
Right.
Yeah, uh, and another thing, one, uh, question, um, a friend of mine has been, um, somehow
he's scammed on his long distance, like, when he had somebody run up, like, $1,000 in one
day on his long distance, um, on one call, in one minute of a particular time, there was,
like, three different calls.
Uh-huh.
In the same, at the very same time, or something like that.
Right, right.
Um, is that, like, somebody actually hardwired taps into the basement of your building, or
is that, like, uh, uh, somebody hacks into the computer system and builds you?
It depends how the call shows up.
I mean, if it's a calling card, obviously, they don't have to be on the premises.
It could be anywhere.
Um, there's, there's all kinds of ways of making it seem like a call emanated from a particular
location without actually being there or even being hardwired in.
And, uh, I think it should be a pretty easy matter to prove that the person didn't do
this since they began at the same time or occurred during the same time.
Thanks for the call.
We're going to move on to, uh, some more people hopefully dealing with the 212 crisis.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello.
Hi.
Um, I was just, um, veering off the topic a little bit with the IP addresses.
Okay, don't veer too, too much here.
Just real quick.
Yeah, well, the thing is, um, a lot of people are registering, like, huge networks and they
only have, like, one computer on.
Like, all these commercial companies, they have separate, classy networks for each product
they have.
Like, you have beer companies.
Miller, and then you have another network for Miller Lite.
Uh-huh.
And that's, like, wasting a lot of addresses right there.
Because you can, you can probably get one network and, like, separate it into all the
products.
Like, when they have the web pages and everything.
Right.
They just, um, take up a network for each, well, a network of IP addresses for each product
they have.
And that's wasting, like, thousands right there.
I think you're kind of confusing it with somebody registering a domain name for every product
they have, which has nothing to do with allocating IP addresses.
Yeah, well, if you have, um, well, the, in the name server, I think it wants, um, a separate,
a domain is allocated per network.
Where, in the, inside the name server, you have to give the domain the network.
I've never really, um, set up a name server by hand, but I think, um, I've read that somewhere.
Uh, that to set up a name server for the domain, you need to, um, allocate an entire, uh, um,
network.
Uh, no, you don't.
Okay, I guess that, that wraps that up.
Uh, we'll, we'll have to talk about this some other time, because this is not the topic
for tonight.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Okay, that's wonderful to hear that.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hi.
How you doing?
I'm all right.
Sounds like you're in a car.
I am.
I just turned the radio down, because, uh, I couldn't hear.
Uh, 646 is, uh, an exchange in Brooklyn, in Sheepshead Bay, uh-huh, and, uh, Brighton
Beach, and that's Nightingale.
That's, uh, what the old determination was.
Oh, really?
Yeah, and, uh, I grew up with it, so I know that.
Then with, uh, there's also, uh, Dewey 2, so it doesn't make any sense why they picked
646.
Well, it's N-I-N for Nine Inch Nails.
Maybe that's got something in there.
Your show is great.
I've been listening to you for the longest time.
Well, thanks.
Do you have any, any suggestions as to how we can get past this crisis?
I think that your idea to add the additional, uh, number at the beginning of the area code
is the way out.
I don't understand why they didn't do that in the first place.
If you go down to, say, Mexico, uh, that type of, uh, area codes that they have.
Or you add a number at the end of the area code.
That actually, that sounds better, because any 2-1-2, it's always beginning.
Well, I, I like your 2-1-2, 2-2-1-2, 3-2-1-2, 4-2-1-2.
Something similar.
And that they, they screwed everybody up with the 7-1-8 to move that into, uh, Brooklyn,
and now they screwed up again with Bronx and, uh, and Queens.
Yeah.
But keep up the, uh, the great, uh, show.
All right, well, listen, thanks for calling.
The content is great, always.
All right, take care then.
Take care, Michael.
Bye-bye.
All right, well, obviously, uh, the issue still has much to be, uh, uh, to be discussed.
And, um, uh, you know, I think if, if, if we start a, a movement, we maybe can get these
four-digit area codes.
I think that's kind of a, kind of a cool idea.
And it's, it's, it's, it was one of my ideas.
Well, actually, a listener called in with similar ideas.
But, uh.
But you thought of it first.
Well, I thought of it a few years ago.
And I remember other people talking about it a few years ago.
And it just never seemed to go anywhere.
I don't know why.
But, uh, it, it would be a lot easier.
Like, instead of having 888, you know, you have 801, 802, 803, you know, you just have
all these different, uh, area codes, and they're all 800, so you know they're all tall.
Yeah, but what do they do in, like, the year 3025 when they run out of phone numbers?
I don't really care.
But, you know, we're out of time, so we'll have to discuss that, uh, next week.
We'll see you then.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
In commemoration of International Women's Month, the 40th anniversary of the independence
of Ghana, and in solidarity with the democratic forces in the Congo, Zaire, the Patrice Lumumba
coalition is issuing a call to all Lumumba's, revolutionaries, working class, oppressed,
and freedom-loving people, to attend an African international forum, generations of resistance
against imperialism in the heart of Mother Africa, a rally to support the legacy of Patrice
Lumumba, and a reception for his son.
Friday, March 7th, from 6.30 p.m. until 10 p.m. at the Harriet Tubman Learning Center, 127th Street
and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in Harlem.
Special guests of honor, Francois Emery Lumumba, president of the Congolese National Movement.
Special invited guest speakers, Marcus Garvey Jr., Dr. Betty Shabazz, Kwame Torre, Dr.
Rashida Esmaili Abubaka, Faola Plummer, Ilunga Colanzo, Samori Markson, Kimati Dinizulu, and Ilambe Brass.
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Coming up, Housing Notebook.
Housing Notebook.