>From today's Chicago Sun-times
Ameritech's got your number--maybe
BY TOM MCNAMEE Staff Reporter
We dialed 411.
``Ameritech National Directory Assistance.''
We would like a number in Washington, D.C.
``What listing?''
The White House.
We were switched to a recorded voice. It gave us a number. We called
it.
``White House.''
The White House? Where Bill Clinton lives?
``No, this is a store.''
A store?
``Yes. A store. A clothing store.''
Getting a long-distance phone number used to be easy. One massive
company, AT&T, ran the nation's entire phone system and almost always
coughed up the right number. And if it couldn't, nobody could.
But no longer. With deregulation, long-distance directory services
have grown as common as crows on a wire, and the number you get--if
any number at all--depends on the service you use.
One of the best long-distance services in the Chicago area, in price
and convenience, is Ameritech's national directory assistance.
Available since last fall and the first service of its kind in the
nation, Ameritech's long-distance directory assistance lets customers
dial 411 to obtain an area code and specific listing for anywhere in
the country.
Instead of having to make the usual two calls--one to obtain an area
code and a second to get the listing (by calling the area code plus
555-1212)--Ameritech customers need to make only one call.
But Ameritech's long-distance directory assistance, at this early
stage, does not appear to be the most accurate.
Ameritech claims an accuracy rate of 99 percent, but when its
operators are asked to provide a number outside Ameritech's five-state
service region, they sometimes fall short. Their biggest competitor in
providing long-distance phone numbers, the long-distance carrier AT&T,
appears more accurate.
Federal law gives long-distance carriers such as AT&T an edge over
regional Baby Bell companies, such as Ameritech, in gaining access to
the most up-to-date and complete phone numbers.
To test for accuracy, the Chicago Sun-Times compiled a list of 35
people and places around the country and called Ameritech and AT&T to
request numbers. The Sun-Times weighted the list with requests that
might prove a challenge.
Of the 35 requested listings, Ameritech provided seven wrong or
second-best numbers. AT&T provided one wrong number. A few samples:
Asked for a number for the White House on four different days,
Ameritech gave the number of the clothing store three times. On our
fourth try, the operator at least knew something was amiss.
``Wait a minute,'' she said. ``I know the White House is on
Pennsylvania Avenue, but I'm not finding a listing.''
The best she could do was a fax number.
AT&T got it right.
Asked for a listing for the Harvard AIDS Institute in Cambridge,
Mass., Ameritech offered a ``general number'' for Harvard University,
which, as it happened, was for a dormitory. AT&T provided the correct
general number.
Asked for a number for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
in Atlanta, Ameritech provided a number for a law firm. Twice. AT&T
got it right.
Asked for a number for the Washington State Department of Labor and
Industries, Ameritech provided a number that rang without answer. AT&T
got it right.
Asked for a number in Washington, D.C., for ``Congressman Bobby
Rush,'' an Ameritech operator said, ``Sorry, I'm showing no listing.''
But, we replied, he's a congressman--you know, a U.S. representative.
He works in Washington. They all work there.
``Sorry,'' she said politely, ``no listing.''
When we called AT&T, on the other hand, an operator explained that
while there were no listings for representatives, Rush could be
reached through the U.S. House of Representatives.
Bingo.
To encourage competition, federal law requires that regional
local-service phone companies provide long-distance companies with
access to their phone listings, for a price.
But because the Baby Bells are not, for the most part, in competition
with each other, federal law does not require that they provide each
other listings. That puts Ameritech at a disadvantage to AT&T when it
comes to offering the most accurate long-distance numbers.
An Ameritech spokeswoman, Lisa Kim, said half of all long-distance
directory requests Ameritech receives are for numbers within its own
five-state region. On these requests, she said, Ameritech is 100
percent accurate. Another 15 percent of requests, she said, are for
numbers to which Ameritech has access through agreements with two
other Baby Bells--Bell South and U.S. West.
But 35 percent of the requests, she said, are for phone numbers in
parts of the country served by Baby Bells that are unwilling to sell
access to Ameritech. For these numbers, she said, Ameritech must rely
on listings from outside telecommunications vendors.
Numbers provided by outside vendors are seldom as current or complete
as those compiled by the Baby Bells, said John Windhausen, of the
Competitive Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
Typically, Windhausen said, the vendors obtain these numbers from the
Baby Bells in ``a timely manner''--as required by federal law--for the
initial purpose of publishing phone directories. But ``a timely
manner'' could be weeks or months. So inevitably, he said, these
numbers are not the most current.
Kim said Ameritech is trying to persuade the other Baby Bells to grant
access to one another's listings.
Despite glitches, Ameritech's pioneering system of one-stop-shopping
for long-distance phone numbers surely will be copied by others.
Recently, AT&T introduced a similar service: (900) 555-1212.
``We have so many new area codes and, before long, they won't reflect
any geographic area,'' Windhausen said. ``One guy in Bethesda, Md.,
for example, might have one area code and the guy next door might have
another.''
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