[VoiceOps] [External] Re: [External] Re: [External] Re: [External] Re: 9-8-8 dialing when an outside line access code (9) is being used

[Hunter Fuller]

On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 1:11 PM Alex Balashov via VoiceOps
<voiceops at voiceops.org> wrote:
> Dialing an “outside line”, in contrast, serves _no_ purpose, because there literally is no “outside line”. The only reason to continue it is to perpetuate user custom and habit.

But it *does* do something. It is the mechanism for the end user to
"tell" the dial plan, "I am about to make an external call, so don't
try to complete it after 4 digits" (or however long your extensions
are).

Of course you can say "just tell the user to dial the entire number
they want and then press Call" (that is, retrain my users to perform
en-bloc dialing). But this is more training than I am currently doing.
My complete user training is done by a single email per user, that is
dispatched automatically by a process we put in place 6 years ago.

So the reason to continue it is because it is free, and it would cost
money (via employee training time) to change it.
What is the reason to NOT continue it? Prior to 988, I was unaware of
one. And it still looks like 988 is the only reason.

All anyone can tell me on this list is "because there is no point,"
"because it is antiquated," etc. - but the proposed alternative would
literally cost my organization time and therefore money to accomplish,
and provide an arguably worse UX for long-time users. So I am still
kinda hoping someone can tell me what would be so great about the
changeover, aside from allowing people to call 988 faster.