Unable to Dial Alternate Provider Numbers in France

ID: Q231769

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to dial a number in France that is served by a telecommunications provider other than France Telecom (provider number 0), you may be unable to connect to the number. An incorrect number may be dialed.

For example, dialing a number from a location in France may yield the following results:

Correct number 71 23 45 67 89

Number dialed 0 71 23 45 67 89

Dialing the number from a country outside of France (for example, from the United States) may yield results similar to the following:

Correct number 011 33 1 23 45 67 89

Number dialed 011 33 0 71 23 45 67 89

CAUSE

The Windows 98 telephony dialing rules cannot properly account for the variations in dialing rules caused by the way that multiple telecommunications providers are implemented in France. This is a limitation of the Windows 98 telephony architecture, exposed by the unique way in which the French telecommunication system is implemented.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

You may be able to work around this issue by using one of the following methods:

Method 1

This method permits correct dialing of the number both from within France and from other countries.

You can click to clear the "Use country code and area code" check box in the properties for the dial-up connection to make Windows dial the number you enter in the Phone Number box exactly as you enter it. Dialing properties (such as call waiting and outside line access numbers) are not applied.

For example, click Modify beside the Phone Number box, and then click to clear the "Use country code and area code" check box. Then, type the entire sequence of numbers needed to dial the number in the Phone Number box.

When you use this method you must enter every digit that is to be dialed in the Phone Number box. The digits are not automatically adapted as you change locations, but you have complete control over the number that is dialed.

You can use this method with HyperTerminal, Dial-Up Networking, The Microsoft Network, and any other telephony program that provides this feature. This feature is provided so that the telephony dialing rules can be manually overridden, to accommodate any exceptions that may occur with any fixed set of rules.

Method 2

If you are calling from within the country of France, you can change the default dialing rules to allow automatic dialing of the correct number. This may be useful if your dialing program does not provide the ability to override the use of Telephony dialing rules.

Obtain and install the update described in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q217189 Cannot Change TAPI Dialing Rules in Windows 98
Be sure to restart your computer after installing this update, or the following steps may not work the first time.

Edit the properties for the dial-up connection you are attempting to make. Make sure that the Provider and Region codes (two digits total) are entered in the Area Code box, and the remaining eight digits of the number are entered in the Phone Number box.

Change the telephony dialing rules for France, which are stored in the Windows 98 registry. Using Registry Editor (Regedit.exe), locate the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Telephony\Country List\33
This key contains the dialing rules for France. You can confirm that this is the correct key by verifying that the data for the "Name" value is "France." Change the data for the following values to the strings indicated:

Value name Original data New data

LongDistanceRule 0FG FG

SameAreaRule 0FG FG

Once these steps are completed, try to connect to the number, and observe whether the actual number dialed is the correct number (no leading 0) and whether the connection is successful. If the correct number is not dialed, shut down and restart your computer, repeat steps 2-3, and test again.

NOTE: This method works only when you are dialing the number from within France. To correctly dial the number from another country, use either method 1 or method 3.

When you use this method, you are unable to dial any number in France from another country. Dialing a number in France from a country outside of France (for example, from the United States) yields results similar to the following:

Destination number	Default dialing string	New dialing string
01 23 45 67 89	011 33 1 23 45 67 89 (correct)	011 33 01 23 45 67 89 (incorrect)
71 23 45 67 89	011 33 0 71 23 45 67 89 (incorrect)	011 33 71 23 45 67 89 (incorrect)

In the case of a number served by the France Telecom provider, the original dialing rules permit a successful connection, while the modified rules do not. In the case of a number served by a provider other than France Telecom, both the original and modified rules produce an incorrect result.

Method 3

If you are calling from outside France, you can modify the number itself to permit dialing of the correct number. This may be useful if your dialing program does not provide the ability to override the use of telephony dialing rules.

Edit the properties for the dial-up connection you are attempting to make, and delete the Provider number (the first of two digits) from the Area Code box. The Area Code box should contain only the Region number, and the remaining eight digits of the number should be entered in the Phone Number box.

NOTE: This method works only when you are dialing the number from outside of France. To correctly dial the number from within France, use either method 1 or method 2. If you use this method to dial the number from outside of France, and then later travel to France with your computer, you must use either method 1 or method 2 to correctly dial the number.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

French phone numbers consist of 10 digits:

1-digit Provider code
1-digit Region code
8-digit local number

10-digit dialing is in effect throughout France, for both local and long distance calls.

The first two digits are typically combined and treated as an Area Code for Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) dialing purposes.

France Telecom, the default telecom provider in France, has a provider code of "0." Therefore, most French telephone numbers begin with 0 (for example, 01 23 45 67 89).

However, other providers are available, with different provider numbers. For example, CEGETEL's provider code is "7," so its subscribers' numbers begin with 7 (for example, 71 23 45 67 89).

Current TAPI dialing rules for France force an initial "0," preventing users from calling non-France Telecom numbers. Because 10-digit dialing is in effect for all calls (local and long distance), this affects all calling in France.

Additional query words:

Keywords : dun wintapi win98 win98se
Version : WINDOWS:
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb