From: jjeejj@mixcom.mixcom.com (Rick Bronson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Equal Access Numbers: How to Find Them
Date: 15 Nov 92 04:38:48 GMT
Organization: Milwaukee Internet Xchange BBS, Milwaukee, WI U.S.A.
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 850, Message 1 of 13


  Here is something you real phone phreaks will love and will leave
others asking "why in the hell would anyone want to do that?".

  First a few definitions: An Equal Access Number is the number you
dial before you dial the long distance number to "override" your
normal long distance carrier and select a different carrier.  As an
example, lets say you had MCI for your 1+ long distance carrier and
you wanted to make a call to 1-212-555-1212 using AT&T, you would dial
10288-1-212-555-1212 (10288 is AT&T's Equal Access Number).  You would
then receive a bill from AT&T for this call.

The second thing I need to tell you is (and many of you already know
this) that when you dial 1-700-555-4141 a recording tells you which
long distance carrier you've selected.  If you preface 1-700-555-4141
with say AT&T Equal Access Number (10288-1-700-555-4141) then you will
get AT&T's recording regardless of who your long distance carrier is.
If you dial 10123-1-700-555-4141 where 10123 is an invalid Equal
Access Number then you get a recording from your local phone company
saying the Equal Access Number is invalid.

  Ok, so I plopped a analog to digital converter on to a circuit board
which can be read via the parallel port and feed a signal which
indicated the level of sound from my modem's speaker into the
converter.  Then wrote a program to auto-dial all Equal Access
Number's from 10000 thru 10999 followed by 1-700-555-4141 then time
when some relatively loud sound came on.  In this way the program
could tell if this was an invalid one (short time) or if it was real
(long time) in which case it logged the number to a file.  I later
dialed these numbers by hand to see what the recording told me. Most
of the time it would say "Thank you for selecting XYZ as your long
distance carrier" but once it said "you have dialed a private network"
and once I got a modem tone so I dialed into it with my computer and
it said "Easylink UserID:".  What follows is the results of my test
which were made from the 414 area code (Milwaukee).
 
 
Equal Access
Number
(10-???)        NAME

222             MCI[A
223             (800-486-8686)
231            *Datanet/American Sharecom
233            *Cable & Wireless
252            *US Sprint Hospitality
288             AT&T
319             Conquest
333             US Sprint
375             Easylink (2400 Baud)
387             (smn 231) AT&T operator
400            *Datanet/American Sharecom
401             Telecom*USA
432            *LCI (Litel)
444             Allnet
450            *MidAmerica
488             MetroMedia
500            *Schneider
551             Access Plus (800-541-4155)
552             Lake States
555            *ITI Encore
658            *ITI Encore
689             (IAB)
696            *DialMED? (800-533-4245)
707            *Pay per view order line
732             Private network
805             MCI
810             Logicall
835             Telecom*USA
880             One Call
887             (IAB)
888             MCI
898             MCI
954            *Prime Time
999             MetroMedia
* Business only
 
  I'd really like to try 950-0000 thru 950-9999 but would have to get
more sophisticated on what I look for on the modem speaker because
just using the time to getting sound would not work. Any ideas?  Also,
can someone give us the scoop on 950 prefix numbers, I think these are
toll-free local numbers, but where do they terminate: in one place per
area-code to the local switch?
 
  Thanks for your indulgence.


Rick Bronson	            Tel 414-362-2419
Marquette Electronics Inc.  FAX 414-362-3010
8200 W. Tower Ave.       "The views expressed
Milwaukee, WI 53223           are mine alone"
Internet: Rick.Bronson@mixcom.com


[Moderator's Note: Of course what Mr. Bronson is overlooking is that
he only connected with the carriers (or services) which have
arrangements *in Milwaukee* to provide long distance calling (or their
services). Except for pretty much the 'Big Three', the remainder of
the numbers on his list may or may not do anything in other cities or
telco territories. We've got a list of these codes in the Telecom
Archives (anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu) which covers the entire USA; not
all listings work in all places.   PAT]