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I mentioned a few months ago that we were going to be required to go to 10-digit dialing here shortly, and today was the day. The problem? It doesn’t appear to be working right, as I’m having trouble making calls to some local prefixes, whether it’s going through our digital PBX, my cell phone, or an analog line. Naturally, I try to call my local rep for support on this stuff, and I can’t get through with or without the area code or adding a “1” in front of the number — get getting 10-digit dialing errors. The homes we rent are having trouble making calls, too, which means it’s probably a Qwest problem. Calling Qwest is all but useless as it’s impossible to get ahold of a local tech — you’re forced to go through their national office in Denver. And since our phone service is with somebody else anyway, they wouldn’t talk to me.

Anybody else having issues?

Update: On a completely unrelated side note, our T1 line for our phones goes through RIO Networks. They used to be available at RIO.com, but their site doesn’t look the same any more as it used to. Looks like RIO Networks still owns the domain, so maybe they cashed in with the Olympics in Rio in 2016. Can’t say that I blame them on that one. They can still be found at RIONetworks.com, it appears.

Update 2: Just got off the phone with RIO’s after-hours tech, and they said they’ve gotten a few calls from the area today, and had heard that Deschutes County government offices were having issues with making calls today too (he had mentioned the Sheriff’s office, but this is all obviously hearsay). He got another phone call from the area while he was on the phone with me, said he’d call me back. I’ll update if I know or find out anything.

Update 3 (an hour later): Still waiting to hear back from RIO, but I forgot to mention: We’ve been using 10-digit-dialing here at the office for quite a while, trying to get people into the practice of doing it. Our fax machine has had the 10-digit numbers programmed into it for weeks, so it’s been working fine prior to today.

Update 4: Apparently, at the very least, call forwarding in the area has been buggered up pretty good by Qwest, at least according to RIO, and now that I think about it, that may be the source for many of the problems I’ve been having. When we moved into this new office, we got a fancy new Mitel IP phone system, and basically had our old analog call-in phone numbers forwarded to our T1 line here at the office (basically having the analogs setup on started POPs and then directed to our T1). It was done seamlessly, so we had no idea it was happening. Since this is the weekend, many of the offices I’ve been trying to call today have been after-hours forwarded numbers, and the numbers either haven’t been forwarded properly, or folks forgot to reset their forward so it was using 10-digit dialing and not just seven-digit. The folks I’ve talked to at RIO and our PBX provider said that there have been issues all over the area with this, including the Camp Sherman Fire folks, and that folks from the various PBX providers around the area are on-site in several locations. All-in-all, a nice little mess for a Sunday afternoon.

Update 5 (the next day): Talked to our PBX and line providers today, there are still problems all over central Oregon with this changeover. We’re not having nearly as many issues today as we did yesterday, but we still are having issues on occasion.