Direct distance dialing (DDD) or direct dial is a telecommunications term for a network-provided service feature in which a call originator may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area. DDD requires more digits in the number dialed than are required for calling within the local area or area code. DDD also extends beyond the boundaries of national public telephone network, in which case it is called international direct dialing or international direct distance dialing (IDDD).
DDD is a North American Numbering Plan term considered obsolete since completing a call in any manner other than direct dialing became rare. In the United Kingdom and other parts of the Commonwealth of Nations, the equivalent terms are or were "STD", for subscriber trunk dialing, and "ISD" for international subscriber trunk dialing.
Read more about Direct Distance Dialing: History, Hardware, IDDD
Famous quotes containing the words direct, distance and/or dialing:
“Long as I have lived, and many blasphemers as I have heard and seen, I have never yet heard or witnessed any direct and conscious blasphemy or irreverence; but of indirect and habitual, enough. Where is the man who is guilty of direct and personal insolence to Him that made him?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A solitary traveler whom we saw perambulating in the distance loomed like a giant. He appeared to walk slouchingly, as if held up from above by straps under his shoulders, as much as supported by the plain below. Men and boys would have appeared alike at a little distance, there being no object by which to measure them. Indeed, to an inlander, the Cape landscape is a constant mirage.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Although I will inherit darkness
I will keep dialing left to right.
I will struggle like a surgeon.
I will call quickly for the glare of the moon.
I will even dial milk.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)