In
telephony
Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is i ...
, the term local call has the following meanings:
# Any
call
Call or Calls may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Call, a type of betting in poker
* Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage
Music and dance
* Call (band), from Lahore, Paki ...
using a single
switching center; that is, not traveling to another telephone network;
# A call made within a local calling area as defined by the
local exchange carrier;
# Any call for which an additional charge, ''i.e.'', toll charge, is not billed to the calling or called party, or (depending on the country) for which this charge is reduced because it is a short-distance call (e.g. within a town or local
metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually ...
).
Typically, local calls have shorter numbers than
long-distance calls, as the
area code
A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, r ...
may not be required. However, this is not true in parts of the United States and Canada that are subject to
overlay plan
Overlay may refer to:
Computers
* Overlay network, a computer network which is built on top of another network
* Hardware overlay, one type of video overlay that uses memory dedicated to the application
*Another term for exec, replacing one proce ...
s or many countries in Europe that require
closed dialing plans
Closed may refer to:
Mathematics
* Closure (mathematics), a set, along with operations, for which applying those operations on members always results in a member of the set
* Closed set, a set which contains all its limit points
* Closed interval, ...
.
Toll free
A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefi ...
(e.g. "800" numbers in the United States) are not necessarily local calls; despite being free to the caller, any charge due for the distance of the connection is charged to the ''called'' party.
Commercial users who make or accept many long-distance calls to or from a particular distant place may make them as local calls by use of a
foreign exchange service. Such an "FX" line also allows people in the distant place to call by using a telephone number local to them.
See also
*
Local access and transport area
Local access and transport area (LATA) is a term used in U.S. telecommunications regulation. It represents a geographical area of the United States under the terms of the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ) entered by the United States Distric ...
*
Local telephone service
Local telephone service is the provision of telecommunications networks and services within a limited geographic region.
Traditionally, local telephone service was provided by small companies based in given cities and towns as opposed to larger, ...
*
Trunk vs. Toll
References
*
Teletraffic
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