This discussion is Beehive CEO's - monthly column as found on the last page of Americas Network magazine. They have been printing his letters for nearly 20 years. This column will remain posted till he writes the next one. The Last Word..                                                February 2000 The Barn Door and welfare The latest move is to get the area code 211 assigned nationally for local welfare office information. Sounds good. Apple pie and motherhood. Who can be against providing more government “services” for the needy? Well, me. And you. Because a system already exists! The free call 800 system can be programmed by a RespOrg, to deliver a specific 800 number from different locations, to designated multiple area numbers divided as the customer(s) might dictate. By city and town or LATA or States or Regions – whatever! Many telcos and IXP’s should be after this business. Taking an NPA for more dispatch centers to “coordinate” charity givers and help spread more Government fat - isn’t wise. Even if the FCC is said to have set aside the number for an undefined national use. Like maybe all those 911 calls that really are not immediate safety to life. I submit that we within the industry need to stop this wave of States wanting to climb on the bandwagon of using 211 as a national welfare bulletin board. The assignment of a single easy to remember 800 number must be used for that purpose. Many question the use of a valuable resource such as an area code for something the 800 number system was designed to do. And cost millions less dollars for the public and the network. I told Peggy, a staff lady with the Utah Division of Public Utilities, who led the charge to ram through the Utah Commission’s request to the FCC to allow use of 211 for Welfare… that I’d furnish 800 MAX HELP. Giddy with success she told me that Utah had to do via 211 ‘cause other States were. And, neither she nor any evidence indicated to our Commissioners one clue as to the versatility of the existing 800 code programming capabilities to do the job without their intervention. Ten digit overlay dialing After T.J. McCreary retired from MaBell, he sent me an insightful document. T.J. proposed switching the entire Country to NPA+4+4 (numbers) instead of NPA+3+4 dialing. His bosses rejected it. They said there was no need to plan for such a silly idea as number congestion. My thoughts then as now was that no one listened to Winston Churchill. Nor were people listening in 1936 when my Dad asked to be released from the military. He’d been working off his four year ROTC obligation to Uncle Sam as the Deputy commander of a CCC group building things in Zion National Park. The Army wrote Pop a letter saying OK. But they said there was going to be a War in Europe. But as nobody was listening, the Army would like him to stay in the Reserve for when the Country needed him. Despite T.J. closed end monopoly (this includes PSC regulation) seldom can foresee needs brought about by unfettered competition. Many of us remember California PSC’s fuss of using it’s political process to stall or eliminate 2 alpha+4numerical dialing. And going to 3+3+4. The problem is the professionals in our industry say competition with poor planning and mileage rating of State LD, has gobbled up all available numbers. Ultimately only 10 digit overlay will solve the problem over the long term. In the name of Competition, the barn with numbers is burning. Fire Trucks are on the scene. Bring hot dogs. The zero foresight mentality as to number use and availability means exhaust is here. Or coming. Even in the remote West. But many States are using emotion to hold hearing, file petitions, go to Court to delay all telephone users being forced to dial (at least) 10 digits. None listened to warnings about the barn catching fire. So, even PSC staff who should know better, (and are excluded from voting) want to have “hearings to see what the public wants” to overturn industry’s factual recommendations. Catch 22. Using stupid to amend prior political decisions based on stupid is … well stupid? The cry of regulators echoing staff discontent should not count. And, cries that our industry wants to jam it to the poor consumer who have no say is - inflammatory. Needed: Hold a brief hearing. Say OK. Then get on with life. And, if ten digit overlay (by default) is to be, then auto dialer phones only cost twelve bucks and the Cell guys could add an NPA button so drivers can automate those local NPA’s prior to punching the last 7 digits before they hit another car. When Art Brothers isn't impeding traffic flow in the desert, he operates Beehive Telephone Co. (Wendover, Utah) Copyright 1999 by A. W. Brothers and Americas Network magazine. All rights reserved. © 1997, 1998, 1999 Beehive Telephone Co.