In article <telecom26.67.3@telecom-digest.org>, fatkinson@mishmash.com
says:
> On Wed, 7 Mar 2007 08:02:45 -0600, Charles Gray
> <charles.gray@okstate.edu> wrote:
>> Unless something has changed recently, you can have a phone number
>> "unlisted unpublished", which means that it won't be printed in the
>> phone directory and directory assistance will not give it out. You
>> can have an "unpublished" number, which means that DA will give it
>> out, but it won't be printed in the directory. I don't know if the
>> charges are/were different or not. I've always had mine "unlisted
>> unpublished".
> I had a friend years ago who had the solution. He had his number
> listed as 'Jack Daniels' and only told people he wanted to call him
> about that. When he'd get telemarketing calls asking for Mr.
> Daniels, he knew to immediately hang up.
> That was a way around paying extra for an unlisted number.
> Regards,
> Fred
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's not a bad idea; I have had my
> telephone listed in the name of one of my cats (under 'K' as in
> Katz, yet) for a long time. Occassionally, however, if the name is
> 'too ridiculous sounding' telco sometimes requires you to send them
> some proof of your name, such as a copy of driver's license, etc. I
> also knew someone, years ago, who would always ask for a 'default
> listed number' but do so a day or two after the directory publisher
> had closed the entries for another year. So, he would never manage
> to actually get himself listed in the phone directory, which was his
> intent. PAT]
I kid you not but there was once a listing in New England Telephone's
white pages for a Bippin P. Dikshit.
That could not be a real name. But then, I've run across several odd
ones in my day so maybe it was.
And friends had the license plates I-812 and OU-812 (I ate one too,
and Oh you ate one too). That lasted for about a year until the DMV
got wind of what they were talking about.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And you have probably heard of business
places which want to be listed _first_ in the directory, so they call
their business 'A' in order to be first. The difficult with being 'A'
is there are so many who wish that designation, so telco's rules seem
to be that when two or more last names amd surnames are identical, all
the way down to the middle initial, then further sorting is done by
the _street_ name, so that 'John J. Smith' of 1234 Any Street is
listed prior to 'John J. Smith' of 1234 Somewhere Street, because A's
come ahead of S's. Now if there are two or more John J. Smith's both
living on Any Street, then the sort continues by _street number_ on
'Any' street, so that the party at 1234 Any Street is listed ahead of
the party at 2345 Any Street. If a business listing has initials with
mean anything the sort is done by what the intial 'means' in real
life. So for example 'FBI' would be listed mid the 'Federal' (as the
first word) listings, where a radio station (KIND or KOSU for example)
would be listed at the first of the listings since 'K' by itself has
no generally understood meaning. Companies with numerals as part of
their name, i.e. '800 Service Corporation' generally go wherever the
number spelled out would go. i.e.'Eight Hundred Service Corporation'
There very seldom is any rush to be the _last_ listing in the phone
book. However, to assure that remains the case, in Chicago for many
years, the final entry in the alphabetical phone book belonged to a
'Mr. Ziggy Zzyxxzy' on Zeigfeld Street. If you do ask to be listed
_first_ in the book, Illinois Bell looks sort of askance at that, and
demands to see your paperwork from the state. For quite a few years,
literally the first listing was always 'A' (with several other A's
following him),but he came first since he was at 1 West Adams Street. I
think the one line description of the business said it was a telephone
answering service, but if you cross-checked via the number (the old
'2080' method), it was listed as Rogers Telephone Answering Service,
which was a few blocks away from '1 West Adams Street', rather than
as 'A'. PAT]
T (nospam.kd1s@cox.nospam.net)