Mapquest and CO (telco central office) locations

Thu Nov 20 08:10:17 PST 2003

> Is anyone else able to confirm that -- about this, anyway -- I was,
> in fact, not hallucinating?  And does anyone know either how to
> recover this capability or know that it was removed for some
> set of reasons?

I would be surprised if you were _not_ hallucinating, as wire-center 
boundaries are considered highly confidential, and even the locations of 
the central offices themselves (though quite obvious when you drive by one) 
are not supposed to be widely known.

This goes back to way before September 11, but that has probably 
intensified things.  You can buy a tape with CO street addresses and 
so-called "V&H" coordinates, for purposes of rate calculations, from what 
used to be Bellcore.  But be prepared to spend a lot of money.  Like a lot 
of pre-Web databases, anything they figured out how to charge for was not 
lightly given away free.  I daresay Mapquest got a cease-and-desist letter.