[12570] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: About the creation of new 3-letter domain(s)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eric Schnoebelen)
Sun May 22 04:55:55 1994
To: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 19 May 1994 21:50:19 CDT."
<199405200150.AA07547@world.std.com>
Date: Fri, 20 May 1994 17:08:33 CDT
From: Eric Schnoebelen <eric@egsner.cirr.com>
Barry Shein writes:
- >From: Alan Barrett <barrett@daisy.ee.und.ac.za>
- >Until a couple of years ago, phone numbers in the rural area where my
- >parents lived were exactly three digits, after a three-digit exchange
- >code. Then they inserted "91" at the front of everybody's number, so
- >now it's 91-XXX instead of just XXX.
-
- * That is, the two examples thus far have been your situation where
- grouping is not de facto standardized anyhow and 3-digits is only one
- among a few acceptable possibilities in use, and yours and someone
- else's recollection of some distant past not in use any longer. Unless
- some major examples come to light I'd say that's pointing towards
- rather rare, and the easy workaround in those cases (coalesce) sounds
- workable.
Er, I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but North America is the
only region using a ``standardized'' 10 digit numbering scheme.
Most of the rest of the world has two and three digit country
codes, and an arbitrary number of `local exhange' digits. I know that
in some countries, it is possible to purchase a very short (digit count)
phone number, and many companies do just that. (kinda like owning an x11
number in the US, of which there are three available.)
To the international telephone system, there is nothing magic
about 10 digit numbers (except in the US, where you will _probably_ get
an error if you don't dial a seven or ten digit number, and I know of
several towns where five digit dialing is the norm with in the
exchange.)
All in all, I find phone numbers to be a poor choice for a
naming mechanism.
[well, it looks like I've just given up lurking.. :-)]
--
Eric Schnoebelen eric@cirr.com schnoebe@convex.com
There has been an alarming increase in the number of things
you know nothing about.
