Phone Numbers

[zachary_amaryllis]

back in the 90's, i used to run a bbs (a fido node, no less!) and the job of maintaining the local call list was delegated to me. at that time basically fort collins was its own local area, with calls to a few outlying towns being local as well (places like wellington, for example). now the local area includes places like greeley, loveland, some of the BFE towns on us 85, and walden (which is like 100 miles from fort collins)

nowadays, i did a search, and found that like 40% or something of the prefixes in this area are local. couple that with everyone having cells, and it makes me wonder, does the difference between local and long distance even matter any more? when i'm working delivering, i frequently have to call customers, and the vast majority of them have out-of-area area codes, and it costs exactly the same to call them as it does to call a 'local' number.

and now we have 'mandatory' 10-digit dialing this area as of a few weeks ago. 10 years ago, you could still dial 4 digits and the pound sign if it was on the same prefix.

i'd be interested to hear from anyone that has a particularly small calling area, or a particularly huge one.

[JayhawkCO]

I've lived back in CO for 6 years now and haven't changed my number from my KC area code.  A) It doesn't cost any more for anyone to call me and B) I can screen calls since all of my spam calls are Kansas numbers, if I don't have one of the 913 numbers saved in my address book, I know it's spam since I'm not doing any business or meeting anyone new in KC.  Area codes are just the new "exchange" numbers. 

Chris

[SP Cook]

I think that in another 20 years, maybe less, your cellphone number, for an average middle-class person, is going to be a hint about where you grew up, more than where you lived. 

There is no real reason to change your phone number every time you move, and lots of reasons not to.

As far as "long distance"  nobody under 40 even knows what that is, at least in a USA/Canada context.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I don't think I've dialed a number without the area code since I was a kid, and I've never noticed or been bothered by that. My cell number was also assigned a 612, even though I didn't live in that area code when I got my current number, and 612 is the smallest geographically in Minnesota, so it's not much use not to dial area codes anyway.

[GaryV]

My wife thinks that she still has to enter the 1 (on her cell) before the area code and phone number.

[SkyPesos]

It would be expected if college towns have a much less than average percentage of local area code phone numbers there. Here at my college, I'm here with a 513 number, met plenty of people with a 317 or 408 number, but haven't called a 765 number that's not an official university phone number yet.

[JayhawkCO]

I think that in another 20 years, maybe less, your cellphone number, for an average middle-class person, is going to be a hint about where you grew up, more than where you lived. 

So essentially your phone number is like a Social Security Number + 14 years (assuming kids get a cell phone somewhere around then.)

Chris

[SP Cook]

I think that in another 20 years, maybe less, your cellphone number, for an average middle-class person, is going to be a hint about where you grew up, more than where you lived. 

So essentially your phone number is like a Social Security Number + 14 years (assuming kids get a cell phone somewhere around then.)

Chris

Good analogy. Although I think they gave up on the first three numbers equaling a state a few years ago.

[Scott5114]

I think that in another 20 years, maybe less, your cellphone number, for an average middle-class person, is going to be a hint about where you grew up, more than where you lived. 

There is no real reason to change your phone number every time you move, and lots of reasons not to.

[1995hoo]

What's interesting to me is that scammers who are trying to pull the "neighbor scam" will still dial phone numbers on the same area code and exchange under the assumption that you'll think it's one of your neighbors calling and you'll pick up. I suppose they don't know which numbers are mobile numbers and which are landlines, but even if they did, the "neighbors have the same exchange" presumption doesn't really seem all that valid–when I moved into my current house in 2001, the phone company issued me a number with a different exchange from most of the people who were then my neighbors. It's far less valid with mobile phones, of course; my wife's has a different exchange from mine.

Even landline area codes may not match anymore. If the new neighbor across the street has a landline, he probably has a 571 area code. We have a 703.

[abefroman329]

does the difference between local and long distance even matter any more? when i'm working delivering, i frequently have to call customers, and the vast majority of them have out-of-area area codes, and it costs exactly the same to call them as it does to call a 'local' number.

Yes, if you live in an apartment building with an antiquated call box that's only capable of dialing local numbers.

It also does if you're staying in a hotel or motel and don't have a cell phone.  We went away for Father's Day, and I was going to let our three-year-old son call my parents, since he was absolutely fascinated with the phones in the room.  I called the front desk to see how much it would cost to make a long distance call, and no one, not the woman I talked to, nor her manager, nor the owner of the hotel, knew how much that would cost.

and now we have 'mandatory' 10-digit dialing this area as of a few weeks ago.

10-digit dialing started in Atlanta when the 770 area code was new, but I remember you had to dial 1 plus the 10 digits if you were calling, say, a number with a 312 area code from a number with a 708 area code, and I'm pretty sure that was still a free call.

10 years ago, you could still dial 4 digits and the pound sign if it was on the same prefix

This is the first time I've heard of this.

My mom was an operator for Illinois Bell way back when, and she used to have most, if not all, of the area codes memorized.

[1995hoo]

....

10-digit dialing started in Atlanta when the 770 area code was new, but I remember you had to dial 1 plus the 10 digits if you were calling, say, a number with a 312 area code from a number with a 708 area code, and I'm pretty sure that was still a free call.

....

I remember when I started college, the phone company in Central Virginia had it set up that for long-distance calls within the same area code, you would dial 1 plus the seven-digit phone number–so to call my brother in Williamsburg (he attended William & Mary), I would dial 1-###-####. To me, that was weird because the phone company in Northern Virginia required 1 plus the area code plus the phone number for long-distance calls within the same area code. The introduction, during that same general time period, of area codes with a second digit of other than "0" or "1" forced an end to what the Charlottesville phone company did–you had to start using the area code whenever you dialled "1" because of the possibility of ambiguity as to whether the next three digits were an area code or a local exchange.

[yanksfan6129]

867-5309 is a good phone number

[zachary_amaryllis]

867-5309 is a good phone number

and could theoretically be a working phone number in fort morgan, colo

[NWI_Irish96]

I think that in another 20 years, maybe less, your cellphone number, for an average middle-class person, is going to be a hint about where you grew up, more than where you lived. 

There is no real reason to change your phone number every time you move, and lots of reasons not to.

As far as "long distance"  nobody under 40 even knows what that is, at least in a USA/Canada context.

What exactly are the reasons not to change my number? I've done it every time I've moved to a new area code.

[JayhawkCO]

I think that in another 20 years, maybe less, your cellphone number, for an average middle-class person, is going to be a hint about where you grew up, more than where you lived. 

There is no real reason to change your phone number every time you move, and lots of reasons not to.

As far as "long distance"  nobody under 40 even knows what that is, at least in a USA/Canada context.

What exactly are the reasons not to change my number? I've done it every time I've moved to a new area code.

To not have to send an update to all of your contacts?

Chris

[kalvado]

My wife thinks that she still has to enter the 1 (on her cell) before the area code and phone number.

+1 is a country dial code for us and Canada. So 20 years later we are going to switch to full numbers planet-wide, and your wife will be saying "I told you so!"

[Big John]

I kept my number when I moved.  I still get scam calls with the same area code and prefix.  That is a big giveaway and the call will be unanswered.

[NWI_Irish96]

I think that in another 20 years, maybe less, your cellphone number, for an average middle-class person, is going to be a hint about where you grew up, more than where you lived. 

There is no real reason to change your phone number every time you move, and lots of reasons not to.

As far as "long distance"  nobody under 40 even knows what that is, at least in a USA/Canada context.

What exactly are the reasons not to change my number? I've done it every time I've moved to a new area code.

To not have to send an update to all of your contacts?

Chris

Good time to weed a few out.

[KeithE4Phx]

... I remember you had to dial 1 plus the 10 digits if you were calling, say, a number with a 312 area code from a number with a 708 area code, and I'm pretty sure that was still a free call.

I lived in Streamwood IL when the suburbs switched to 708 in 1989.  We had to dial 1 when calling Chicago, but it certainly was not a free call.  The only free calls to and from Streamwood (Bartlett exchange) were Schaumburg, Elgin, Hoffman Estates, and a few other nearby 'burbs who's central office was within 8 miles of Bartlett.  Everything else was was charged per-minute depending on the distance. 

I don't know if that's still true today (I left the Chicago area in 1994), but it was then.

[kalvado]

I think that in another 20 years, maybe less, your cellphone number, for an average middle-class person, is going to be a hint about where you grew up, more than where you lived. 

There is no real reason to change your phone number every time you move, and lots of reasons not to.

As far as "long distance"  nobody under 40 even knows what that is, at least in a USA/Canada context.

What exactly are the reasons not to change my number? I've done it every time I've moved to a new area code.

To not have to send an update to all of your contacts?

Chris

Good time to weed a few out.

And remind the rest of the gang about your existence.

[dlsterner]

I think I may run a rather large gamut of phone number protocols through the years.

- The first home phone number that I remember used a word rather than using the first two digits (corresponding to the standard letters on a telephone).  Our phone number was KIMBALL 8-xxxx rather than 548-xxxx.  And yes, it was a party line.

- I remember dialing local calls as xxx-xxxx, long distance calls within my area code as 1-xxx-xxxx (no area code dialed), and 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx for long distance outside my area code.  Back then, area codes only had 0 or 1 as their middle digit; exchanges had anything except a 0 or 1 - so there was no ambiguity after dialing the first seven digits.

- In the mid-1980's I remember Maryland becoming one of (if not the first) states to require 10 digit dialing.

- Soon came the advent of "overlay" area codes, and the use of digits other than 0 or 1 in the middle of area codes.

- I believe most everywhere now requires 10 digit dialing.  I still sometimes find myself pressing "1" first, out of habit.

[Big John]

- I believe most everywhere now requires 10 digit dialing.  I still sometimes find myself pressing "1" first, out of habit.

And many of those 7-number calling changed to 10-digit calling this week, in order to activate 988 as a suicide prevention hotline.

[KeithE4Phx]

- The first home phone number that I remember used a word rather than using the first two digits (corresponding to the standard letters on a telephone).  Our phone number was KIMBALL 8-xxxx rather than 548-xxxx.  And yes, it was a party line.

Prior to the 1950s, most large cities used 6-digit numbers, with two letters and 4 numbers.  An example would be MAin 1234.  Some mid-sized cities used 5 digits (2-3456), and the smallest towns used 4 and even 3 digits.  The change to 2 letters and 5 digits started around 1952, but some of those shorter numbers continued into the 1960s.  NYC, Chicago, Philly, and Boston used 7 digits, originally in a British-style 3-letter, 4-digit format, going back to the 1920s.

New York City had gone to 2L-5N numbers in 1930.  Chicago, Philly, and Boston followed suit in 1948, changing the third letter to its equivalent number.  For example, the number PENnsylvania 5000 became PEnnsylvania 6-5000.  The 2L-5N numbers began to change to 7 digits in the mid 1960s, but it took until the mid '70s for all numbers to be converted, notably in Chicago.

[tolbs17]

Should I give out my phone number?