SIACHEN GLACIER

The Siachen Glacier is a glacier located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalayas, just northeast of the point where the line of control between India and Pakistan ends. It is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world’s non-polar regions. It falls from an altitude of 18,875 feet above sea level down to 11,875 feet above sea level at its terminus. The glacier’s region is the highest battleground on Earth, where Pakistan and India have fought intermittently since April 1984. A cease-fire went into effect in 2003. Even before then, more soldiers were killed every year due to severe weather conditions than enemy fire. India built the world’s highest helipad on the glacier at Point Sonam, 21,000 feet above sea level, to supply its troops. India’s Sonam post is the highest permanently manned post in the world. In 1997, the Indian army established an STD-PCO (subscriber trunk dialing-public call office) to enable soldiers stationed on the glacier to call home. From 1997 until it was replaced by cell service in 2009, it was the world’s highest public telephone booth.

HELIPAD AT SONAM POST ON SIACHEN GLACIER

COST OF IPHONE XS - SELECT WORLD CITIES

COST OF IPHONE XS, 2019 (US$)
Brazil	2,050
Turkey	1,880
India	1,635
Russia	1,586
Egypt	1,537
Italy	1,514
UK	1,483
Spain	1,480
France	1,479
Mexico	1,477
Germany	1,469
China	1,423
Malaysia	1,378
Saudi	1,333
Australia	1,317
US	1,251
Nigeria	1,178

EAST TENNESSEE AREA CODE 865

On October 1, 1999, east Tennessee area code 423 was split and new area code 865 was assigned to Knoxville. Typically, when an area code is split, the largest city in an existing numbering plan area keeps the original code – in this case, Knoxville. However, the Tennessee Regulatory requested that the code 865 be assigned to Knoxville because on a standard telephone keypad, the numbers 865 correspond to the letters VOL, the commonly used short version of Volunteers, which is the formal nickname of the sports teams at the University of Tennessee.

PENNSYLVANIA 6-5000

The telephone number in the Glen Miller Orchestra’s hit song “Pennsylvania 6-5000” (1940) is the number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. The number is now written as 1-212-736-5000. According to the hotel’s website, Pennsylvania 6-5000 is New York’s oldest continually assigned telephone number and possibly the oldest continually-assigned number in the world.

COST OF PERSON TO PERSON TELEPHONE CALLS IN 1950

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Source

TELEPHONE AREA CODE 3-2-1

Area code 312 was the original area code assigned to the Chicago metropolitan area. It remains today as the area code for downtown Chicago. When area codes were initially assigned under the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), area code 321 was reserved for future use in the Chicago area. In 1999, the 407-area code in central Florida was to be split with the east coast (Space Coast) to be assigned a new area code. A local resident by the name of Robert Osband launched (pun intended) a drive to have 3-2-1 assigned as the new area code. The code refers to the countdown sequence for spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral. Osband’s efforts were successful and 321 was activated for the Space Coast in 2000. When it was activated in 2000, area code 321 was used as an overlay for most of area code 407 in the Orlando area. (An overlay is a telephone numbering plan that assigns multiple area codes to a geographic numbering plan area (NPA)). 321 is the only area code in North America that is the overlay of one area code and the sole area code elsewhere. 10-digit dialing* is mandatory in both areas.

*Your humble blogger happened to live in central Florida when 10-digit dialing became mandatory. For those of you not familiar with 10-digit dialing, this meant that you had to dial the area code for all calls. For example, if I wanted to call my next-door neighbor, who also had an area code of 407, I still had to dial the area code + the telephone number (10-digits). As an aside, it quickly became routine to dial 10 numbers every time you made a call. So much so, that when I moved from area code 407 and no longer had to do 10-digit dialing, it became a difficult habit to break.

PAT FLEET - YOU KNOW THE VOICE

INTERCEPT MESSAGE: An intercept message is a telephone recording informing the caller that the call cannot be completed, for any of a number of reasons ranging from local congestion, to disconnection of the destination phone, number dial errors or network trouble along the route. The following is an example of an intercept message: “We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again”.

SPECIAL INFORMATION TONE: A special information tone (SIT) is an in-band international standard signal consisting of three rising tones indicating a call has failed. It usually precedes a recorded announcement describing the problem. The purpose of the SIT is to let callers know that the call has failed, even though they might not understand the language of the recorded announcement. Click on the sound file below to hear the SIT for; number changed or disconnected

Pat Trumble Fleet is a working American voice actress known as the registered voice of AT&T. Widely recognized for the tens of thousands of recordings she has made for US telephone companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, the former Bell System companies, and others since 1981, she is most recognized as the person who says "AT&T" in the company's sound trademark played prior to any operator assisted or credit card paid call, and on answer when calling AT&T customer service numbers. Ms. Fleet is also the voice for a significant number of telephone company intercept recordings - messages giving reasons for call failure that start with a special information tone and usually begin with the phrase "We're sorry…

AUTOMATED COIN TOLL SYSTEM: If you are old enough to remember pay phones, Pat Fleet was the person who told you how much money you had to deposit to continue the call. Debuted in Phoenix, Arizona in 1977 the Automated Coin Toll System (ACTS) provided an automated way to perform charge advisory and toll collection of coin paid calls, reducing the need for operator involvement. The ACTS sub-system handled the automated voice announcements, e.g. "Please deposit five cents for the next three minutes" (initially voiced by Jane Barbe , and later Pat Fleet), and worked with TSPS for coin deposit (start of call) coin collection/coin return (at end of call).

MINK, LOUISIANA

Mink, Louisiana did not get traditional landline telephone service until February 2005.

Mink is an unincorporated community in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States, approximately 100 miles south of Shreveport. It is in Kisatchie National Forest.                      Mink was one of the last places in the United States to receive traditional landline telephone service. Service began in February 2005, when BellSouth spent $700,000, or about $47,000 per phone, to run a cable of 30 miles (48 km) through thick forests to the hamlet. The thrust to bring the telephone service to Mink began when a resident of the community, Alice Louise Johnson Bolton (1921-2014), a retired teacher's assistant, spoke out at a town hall meeting in Natchitoches in 2003 called by Foster Campbell, one of the five members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Mrs. Bolton renewed her long-term quest for telephone service by noting that Mink was repeatedly bypassed by the phone company. Bolton became a short-lived celebrity for her outspoken campaign. She was featured in several news articles, including one in The New York Times and another in The Independent in London. When service finally came to Mink, Bolton's first caller was to then governor Kathleen Blanco.

SPEAKING CLOCK AKA TALKING CLOCK

A talking clock is a live or recorded human voice, usually accessed by telephone that gives the correct time. The first telephone speaking clock service was introduced in France, in association with the Paris Observatory, on February 14, 1933.

The format of the service is similar to that of radio time signal services. At set intervals (e.g. ten seconds) a voice announces (for example) “At the third stroke, the time will be twelve forty-six and ten seconds…”, with three beeps following. Some countries have sponsored time announcements and include the sponsor’s name in the message.

The first automated time service in the United States began in Atlanta, Georgia in 1934 as a promotion for Tick Tock Ginger Ale.

The service became typically known as the “Time of Day” service, with the term “speaking clock” never being used. Occasionally it would be called “Time and Temperature” simply “Time”.

For all area codes in Northern California and on the West Coast generally, the reserved exchange, the reserved exchange was 767 which was often indicated by its phoneword POPCORN (767-2676); the service was discontinued in 2007.

CURRENTLY ACTIVE TELEPHONE TALKING CLOCK SERVICE
PHONE NUMBER	LOCATION	DESCRIPTION
502-585-5961	Louisville, KY	Once owned by Citizen’s Fidelity Bank. In operation as of November, 2018
xxx-xx-0123	Wisconsin	The former Wisconsin Bell reserved the ending -0123 in the dominant exchange for a city time and temperature information.
920-734-0123*	Appleton, WI	Originally provided by AT&T, the incumbent LEC**, the service was terminated after decades in existence and the number was taken over by a privately operated talking clock offering the time, temperature and  brief sponsored advertisements.
203-777-4647 (203-SPRINGS)	New Haven, CT	Working as of July, 2018
219-933-9000	Northwest, IN	Working as of today
406-442-1730	Helena, MT	Working as of July 2018
408-767-2676 (408-POPCORN)	San Jose, CA	Time/Temperature Service now provided by a CLEC*. Working as of July 2018
415-767-2676	San Francisco, CA	Time/Temperature Service now provided by a CLEC**
541-917-6885	Albany, OR	Working as of July 2018
817-844-6611	Fort Worth, TX	Working as of August 2018. Provided by Haltrom’s Jewelers (previously owned by Chase Bank).
972-844-6611	Dallas, TX	Working as of November 2018. Also works with 214 area code.
919-362-1226	Apex, NC	Working as of July 2018
919-468-8463 (468-TIME)	Cary, NC	Working as of July 2018
740—774-2151	Kannapolis, NC	Working as of July 2018
513-721-1700	Cincinnati, OH	Working as of July 2018
740-774-2151	Chillicothe, OH	Working as of July 2018
251-660-0044	Mobile, AL	Working as of July 2018
770-455-7141	Atlanta, GA	Working as of November 2018
330-823-8211	Alliance, OH	Working as of November 2018
302-475-8463	Wilmington, DE	Working as of December 2018

*I called this number today, and a very pleasant female voice greeted me with; “Good morning, today is December 19, the time is 11:14 and the temperature is 35 degrees”.

**A competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) is a telecommunications provider company (sometimes called a “carrier”) competing with other already established carriers (generally the incumbent local exchange carrier (LEC).