Zoom phone local calling

[ChamMSD]

Hi all. Need you expertise 🙂 When my clients calling me from landlines to my local zoom phone number, they get a prompt saying 'you are trying to call a long distance number, please dial 1 before phone number'. I have no clue as to how to resolve the issue. Weird thing is that, calls coming from cell phones have no issues at all. Really appreciate you help

[Eliot]

hi chammsd,

some telephone companies providing landlines may require dialing "1" before the phone number if they classify the call as long distance.  local and long distance calls from cell phones in usa do not usually require dialing a "1" in front of the phone number.   

the same geographical area may have multiple area codes.  for example, nevada, usa has three area codes - 702 and 725 for clark county and 775 for the rest of nevada.   area code 725 is an overlay of 702 area code and is treated the same as 702.  generally, calls between one 702 phone number and another 702 or 725 phone number are local calls.  calls between a 702 or 725 phone number and a 775 phone number are long distance.

https://puc.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/puc.nv.gov/Content/Consumers/Fact_Sheets/Utility_Regulation_Fact_Sh...

thanks,  eliot

[ChamMSD]

Thanks Eliot for your descriptive response. In my case, only the zoom number I tried to call requires dial 1 before the number, and not for any other local numbers. Zoom engineers are working on this last few days but no solution yet. I’m kind of regretting choosing zoom as my office phone provider. I should have picked a local provider instead 😢😢. I’ll keep you posted as to what zoom support says.

thanks 

[Eliot]

as mentioned, some local numbers have more than area code.  before the advent of a more than one area code in a local area such as las vegas, nevade, you could dial 7 digits.  once the second area code came into the local area, you had to dial 10 digits.  some local providers use cisco broadworks which at one time required you to dial a 1 before the 10 digits for long distance calls. since there is no problem with dialing the number from a cell phone,  it might help if we knew which local providers are requiring the addition of a 1 prefix to the ten digit number. 

sorry your clients are having to dial the 1 prefix.

thanks,

eliot

[Eliot]

another possibility.

In some cases, carriers require dialing a 1 before the area code if the call is outside the caller’s local service area even if you are in the same area code.  The local service area is called a Local Access and Transport Area (LATA).  You can check to see if this is the case by checking the lata of your telephone numbers that require dialing a 1 and the lata of those that do not. 

You can lookup the lata of a telephone number for free by using a service such as North American Telephone Exchange Lookup by NPA NXX (npanxxsource.com).

Back in the dark areas and still used by some legacy carriers in usa, rates for calls within a state are based on tariffs filed with the state public utilities commission.  As an example, a new york city carrier had different plans with different rates covering (a) your local service area, (b) long distance outside your local service area but within the state, (c) interstate calling and (d) international calling.  this local carrier had a plan to provide local area calls for free, charged 7 cents a minute for calls within new york state but outside your local area and 3 cents a minute for interstate calls.  The fcc explains some of this in the link below.

Local, Local Toll, and Long Distance Calling | Federal Communications Commission (fcc.gov)

thanks,  eliot