Telephone numbers

[frankenroad]

Zip codes are in no danger of "exhaustion" .  The first three digits are for the zone, which is a central city with a sorting post office.  They planned ahead and they skipped plenty of combinations.  So in the unlikely event that a part of the country grew so much that it became a central post office, they have a number available.  The last two are either the individual post office in rural areas, or a part of town in big cities.  Again, they planned ahead and each set has plenty of skipped numbers.  If a new town develops, they just use one of those.

Not to mention, a lot of ZIP codes have been de-commissioned in the almost 60 years since the system was first introduced.

If it ain't broke......

[kphoger]

If it ain't broke......

......Poiponen13 will attempt to fix it.

[NWI_Irish96]

Zip codes are in no danger of "exhaustion" .  The first three digits are for the zone, which is a central city with a sorting post office.  They planned ahead and they skipped plenty of combinations.  So in the unlikely event that a part of the country grew so much that it became a central post office, they have a number available.  The last two are either the individual post office in rural areas, or a part of town in big cities.  Again, they planned ahead and each set has plenty of skipped numbers.  If a new town develops, they just use one of those. 

Not even close to exhaustion. If you take out xx000 as an option, that leaves 99,900 possible ZIP Codes, with about 42,000 currently in use.

We're also nowhere near out of phone numbers.

[formulanone]

Leave us alone, we know what to do.

[7/8]

But Canadian codes have one more character than US codes.

Sounds inefficient.

The only advantage with Canadian postal codes is Santa's mailing address: H0H 0H0

[kphoger]

I imagine that the danger of running out of phone numbers was a more looming threat before (1) cell phones skyrocketed in popularity, (2) portability was opened up to cell phone numbers, and (3) cell phone providers stopped caring about local/long-distance distinctions.

[GaryV]

But Canadian codes have one more character than US codes.

But the US has not yet taken over Canada - that's another thread.

[hbelkins]

Zip codes are in no danger of "exhaustion" .  The first three digits are for the zone, which is a central city with a sorting post office.  They planned ahead and they skipped plenty of combinations.  So in the unlikely event that a part of the country grew so much that it became a central post office, they have a number available.  The last two are either the individual post office in rural areas, or a part of town in big cities.  Again, they planned ahead and each set has plenty of skipped numbers.  If a new town develops, they just use one of those.

Kentucky has given back a number of ZIP codes over the years in rural counties. They were originally signed alphabetically with the area distribution center getting the nnn01 designation; in my area, 41301 is Campton. I remember seeing lists of ZIP codes in this area with places like Altro and Athol getting lower numbers; in my county, Zachariah (now closed) was 41396 and Zoe (pronounced "Zoh" and still open) is 41397.

The 413 area spanned only four counties (Breathitt, Lee, Owsley, and Wolfe.) The 403 and 404 areas span cover much more territory but many of those counties had fewer post offices to start with.

[Scott5114]

The zip code system actually has eleven digits: the base five digits that everyone is familiar with, then the plus-four code that you can include if you want, and then there's a two-digit "delivery point" code that is basically only ever used by USPS. Put it all together and you have an eleven-digit code that uniquely identifies every mailbox in the United States.

What possible change could even be needed, especially when there are loads of five-digit ZIPs that have yet to be allocated, and the eleven-digit codes allow for a million addresses in each ZIP? 

[kphoger]

What possible change could even be needed, especially when there are loads of five-digit ZIPs that have yet to be allocated, and the eleven-digit codes allow for a million addresses in each ZIP? 

He likes letters as identifiers very greatly.

[Scott5114]

What possible change could even be needed, especially when there are loads of five-digit ZIPs that have yet to be allocated, and the eleven-digit codes allow for a million addresses in each ZIP? 

He likes letters as identifiers very greatly.

I like chicken strips very greatly, but I'm not calling for them to be added to the zip code system.

[Takumi]

Leave us alone, we know what to do.

No Poiponen, you will not have the ZIP code.

[formulanone]

Leave us alone, we know what to do.

No Poiponen, you will not have the ZIP code.

Yeah, yeah, yeah so just be QU137 

[KeithE4Phx]

Seems like we've had this type of discussion before.

At one time, you saw phone numbers listed as a word followed by one number, then the dash, then the four-digit number. The landline prefix in my community is 464, so old newspaper ads showed phone numbers as INgersoll4-nnnn.

If you're old enough to remember the big-band song "Pennsylvania 6-5000," or have otherwise heard of it or that phrase, that song is making reference to a phone number.

Originally, the number was PENnsylvania 5000.  New York (until 1930), Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia (prior to 1948) used 3 letter-4 digit numbers before changing to the more common 2 letter-5 digit numbers.  Chicago was the last city to show 2L5N numbers instead of 7 digits in the phone book, ending the practice in the mid '70s, although they are still used in advertising to this day.

In the rest of the country, prior to the 1950s, larger cities (including LA) used 2 letter-4 digit numbers, such as MAin 1234, while smaller cities and towns used 4 or 5 digits if they had dial service.  Rural areas that didn't have dial service had to signal the operator to make a call, either by just picking up the handset or turning the crank if they had really old phones (I saw one of those used in northern Wisconsin as late as 1962, and it worked!) to alert the operator.  Those areas used 3 digit numbers with a letter on the end, such as 123-J, for party lines.

[elsmere241]

The zip code system actually has eleven digits: the base five digits that everyone is familiar with, then the plus-four code that you can include if you want, and then there's a two-digit "delivery point" code that is basically only ever used by USPS. Put it all together and you have an eleven-digit code that uniquely identifies every mailbox in the United States.

And Canada's six characters are roughly equivalent to a ZIP+4.

[Amaury]

They used to, and still do in some advertising (for example, 1-800-DISCOVER). But since there are only 10 keys in standard telephone keypads, using letters instead of numbers (for example, 2 = A, B, or C) would not increase the supply of available numbers.

They're still numbers in the end, though. If a phone number in a television advertisement in ABCD, it looks different externally, but at the end of the day, it's still 2223, in that you could just write or might as well have just written out 2223 instead of ABCD.

[Takumi]

Leave us alone, we know what to do.

No Poiponen, you will not have the ZIP code.

Yeah, yeah, yeah so just be QU137 

4WH47

[Big John]

and pre 1970s, a phone number would look like UNion7-5309.

[algorerhythms]

But since there are only 10 keys in standard telephone keypads

# and * bring it up to 12.

There is a plan for expansion at some point in the far future, which is why area codes can't have 9 as a middle digit.

It would be good to use letters as well. And U.S. zip codes should also contain letters, e.g. in the format AB-1234.

Americans would shit a brick if letters were added to zip codes, if their reactions when I need to tell them my Canadian postal code are any indication.

[chrisdiaz]

So at my job, we have to ask for zip code, and it only accepts numbers, no letters. When I have someone start to tell me letters, I just stop them and say "Haha nevermind you're good" and just enter all zeroes.

[US 89]

So Poiponen's ideal world consists of streets named for presidents, random word named streets with every fifth one some variant of Jade, absolutely no numbered streets at all, and now alphanumeric phone numbers (or is it phone alphanumbers?) and postal codes. I think a universe is gradually being built here...

[Scott5114]

So Poiponen's ideal world consists of streets named for presidents, random word named streets with every fifth one some variant of Jade, absolutely no numbered streets at all, and now alphanumeric phone numbers (or is it phone alphanumbers?) and postal codes. I think a universe is gradually being built here...

sounds like Nimbya to me

[Road Hog]

We are a few decades away, but we will at some point run out of viable phone number combinations in North America. Adding a digit will solve this.

While phone numbers in the U.S. have 10 digits, Social Security numbers have only nine. Nobody has addressed this, despite the fact that these numbers will probably outlive the payment of benefits in less than a decade.

[Poiponen13]

We are a few decades away, but we will at some point run out of viable phone number combinations in North America. Adding a digit will solve this.

While phone numbers in the U.S. have 10 digits, Social Security numbers have only nine. Nobody has addressed this, despite the fact that these numbers will probably outlive the payment of benefits in less than a decade.

Adding a letter to telephone numbers would be better.

[Scott5114]

We are a few decades away, but we will at some point run out of viable phone number combinations in North America. Adding a digit will solve this.

While phone numbers in the U.S. have 10 digits, Social Security numbers have only nine. Nobody has addressed this, despite the fact that these numbers will probably outlive the payment of benefits in less than a decade.

Adding a letter to telephone numbers would be better.

The letters on American telephones just resolve to numbers. Unless you're wanting to force everyone to buy new telephones that have actual letter buttons on them. In which case, why do you hate old people, Poiponen13?