On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 21:01:08 -0400, Michael Muderick
<michael.muderick@verizon.net> wrote:
> I don't know the cost of all the features, but they were a la carte.
> However the hunting feature was done at the CO and there was no charge
> for that as far back as I can remember. Remember, it meant another
> completed call for Ma Bell, rather than a busy signal, so it was to
> their advantage to give hunting away free, lest someone decide to opt
> out of it.
And something I've always wondered about is the use of multiple lines
in countries outside of the US such as in Europe and in Asia. Often
I'd see numbers advertised or on signage on the order of 123456/7
meaning that you could reach that business by dialing either 123456 or
123457. Does this mean that these step-by-step/Strowger or other
electromechanical exchanges did not have trunk hunt and that this is
just a North American "invention." I can't think of any other reason
for listing for the public both numbers if they were sequential other
than the facility for automatic trunk hunt was not available.
And as far as "hunt" goes Telco (Southwestern Bell in particular) did
not want to give me hunt on a residential line with sequential line
numbers when I had two lines. Actually it doesn't matter if it's
sequential or not. Even #5 Crossbar had "jump" hunt readily
available. In any case they didn't want to provision my residential
line with hunt capability.
Joseph (JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com)