On Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 8am, new procedures take effect for placing long-distance calls with MIT account numbers from MIT phones. Under the new procedures, to place a long-distance call from a Class B phone, or from a Class A phone when you wish to charge the call to a specific account, you must enter the seven-digit MIT cost object instead of the old five-digit MIT account number.
In general, the new seven-digit cost object is the current five-digit account number with two zeros added to the end. For example, current account 12345 becomes cost object 1234500. If you are unsure of converting your current MIT account numbers to cost objects, check the number with your administrative officer.
The table below summarizes the new long-distance calling procedures from MIT Class A and Class B phones.
No "grace period" is built into this changeover; no prompt will remind you to enter the seven-digit cost object. If, beginning December 22, you enter a five-digit account, the system will assume the next two digits following the five digits are part of the seven-digit account number. This means your call will probably not be completed or you will be connected to a wrong number.
For more details on this change, go to the IS web page. If you have questions or problems, call the IS help line at x3-HELP (x3-4357).
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on December 16, 1998.
