Telephone numbers

[Scott5114]

The Federal Reserve districts, which were set up in 1913, are pretty silly for the same reason.

(Yes, Poiponen, they use letters for these sometimes, including as part of the serial numbers of US dollar bills. Hello from District J.)

[hbelkins]

One thing I've noticed about phone numbers is how so many people keep their old cell numbers when they move. For example, my sister-in-law moved from the 606 to the 502 area code this year, but she kept her 606 number.

That means that anyone who calls her from a landline in her new hometown is making not only a toll call, but an out-of-area-code toll call.

Twice in recent years, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has also caused local landline callers to have to make toll calls to people locally. Several years ago, they went from a cell provider with local numbers to Verizon. Verizon doesn't offer service natively in this area, so our numbers are based out of Morehead. And while our new VOIP system originally had local numbers for each individual desktop phone line, a change to the system last year turned those numbers into 502 numbers that show up as Louisville. So if someone across the street wants to call someone at the office, they have to make a toll call.

[KeithE4Phx]

One thing I've noticed about phone numbers is how so many people keep their old cell numbers when they move. For example, my sister-in-law moved from the 606 to the 502 area code this year, but she kept her 606 number.

That means that anyone who calls her from a landline in her new hometown is making not only a toll call, but an out-of-area-code toll call.

I haven't had landline service since 2008, but I didn't have to pay for long distance when I had it since 2002 at the latest.  USWest/Qwest had a plan that eliminated toll calls for an extra $10, as did Cox Cable when I switched to them.  It paid for itself within a week.

[CtrlAltDel]

The Federal Reserve districts, which were set up in 1913, are pretty silly for the same reason.

(Yes, Poiponen, they use letters for these sometimes, including as part of the serial numbers of US dollar bills. Hello from District J.)

Don't forget the federal courts:



Why some states use "Central" and some use "Middle" is something I don't know.

[oscar]

^ Some trivia about Federal court boundaries:

-- The only district court whose jurisdiction includes parts of more than one state is the one for Wyoming, which also covers the parts of Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Idaho.

-- The 10th Circuit was carved out of the 8th Circuit. The 11th Circuit was carved out of the 5th Circuit.

-- The huge 9th Circuit has not been split, but for a variety of reasons I won't go into here, that idea has been suggested but is controversial.

[kkt]

What's the benefit of including letters? Wouldn't that make phone numbers even harder to remember than just numbers? 26 possibilities for letters vs 10 numbers.

What you'd remember is the name for the exchange, which was a word.  Then the first two letters of the word were translated to digits for dialing - and painted on the dial in case you had trouble remembering.  For example, PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was pronounced just like the name of the state, and it was really a mnemonic for the first two letters.  On your phone you'd put your finger in the hole for P, dial it, then put your finger in the hole for E, and dial it, and continue dialing 65000.

The letter dialing succeeded in making phone numbers easier to remember, but did nothing to increase how many numbers were available because the letters were assigned about 3 letters to a digit.  Actually abandoning the named exchanges increased the number of available exchanges, because 0 and 1 had no letters assigned and therefore could not be used for the first or second digits of an exhange.

[jeffandnicole]

What's the benefit of including letters? Wouldn't that make phone numbers even harder to remember than just numbers? 26 possibilities for letters vs 10 numbers.

What you'd remember is the name for the exchange, which was a word.  Then the first two letters of the word were translated to digits for dialing - and painted on the dial in case you had trouble remembering.  For example, PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was pronounced just like the name of the state, and it was really a mnemonic for the first two letters.  On your phone you'd put your finger in the hole for P, dial it, then put your finger in the hole for E, and dial it, and continue dialing 65000.

The letter dialing succeeded in making phone numbers easier to remember, but did nothing to increase how many numbers were available because the letters were assigned about 3 letters to a digit.  Actually abandoning the named exchanges increased the number of available exchanges, because 0 and 1 had no letters assigned and therefore could not be used for the first or second digits of an exhange.

0 & 1 still can't be used for the first digit of the exchange.  0 & 1 couldn't be used as the second digit of an exchange because they were solely reserved for area codes.  That changed back in the 90's I believe when they ran out of area codes that were x0x and x1x; well after the letters were eliminated from phone numbers.

[CtrlAltDel]

What's the benefit of including letters? Wouldn't that make phone numbers even harder to remember than just numbers? 26 possibilities for letters vs 10 numbers.

What you'd remember is the name for the exchange, which was a word.  Then the first two letters of the word were translated to digits for dialing - and painted on the dial in case you had trouble remembering.  For example, PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was pronounced just like the name of the state, and it was really a mnemonic for the first two letters.  On your phone you'd put your finger in the hole for P, dial it, then put your finger in the hole for E, and dial it, and continue dialing 65000.

The letter dialing succeeded in making phone numbers easier to remember, but did nothing to increase how many numbers were available because the letters were assigned about 3 letters to a digit.  Actually abandoning the named exchanges increased the number of available exchanges, because 0 and 1 had no letters assigned and therefore could not be used for the first or second digits of an exhange.

0 & 1 still can't be used for the first digit of the exchange.  0 & 1 couldn't be used as the second digit of an exchange because they were solely reserved for area codes.  That changed back in the 90's I believe when they ran out of area codes that were x0x and x1x; well after the letters were eliminated from phone numbers.

Also limiting the number of exchanges, at least in practice, was the rarity of good words for some combinations, such as 55, 57, 95, and 97. If I had to guess, this part of why 555 became the "official" fictional exchange.

[Scott5114]

What's the benefit of including letters? Wouldn't that make phone numbers even harder to remember than just numbers? 26 possibilities for letters vs 10 numbers.

What you'd remember is the name for the exchange, which was a word.  Then the first two letters of the word were translated to digits for dialing - and painted on the dial in case you had trouble remembering.  For example, PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was pronounced just like the name of the state, and it was really a mnemonic for the first two letters.  On your phone you'd put your finger in the hole for P, dial it, then put your finger in the hole for E, and dial it, and continue dialing 65000.

The letter dialing succeeded in making phone numbers easier to remember, but did nothing to increase how many numbers were available because the letters were assigned about 3 letters to a digit.  Actually abandoning the named exchanges increased the number of available exchanges, because 0 and 1 had no letters assigned and therefore could not be used for the first or second digits of an exhange.

When PE6-5000 was originally assigned, NYC was actually using three letters and four digits, so it was actually PEN-5000. They changed to the standard two letters and six digits, probably because of the difficulty of finding good word/exchange number combinations.

Also, yeah, the letters were printed on the phone so you could translate between them without much trouble, even on the touch-tone phones. For a while there, just about everyone had this exact Western Electric phone (because it was the only one The Phone Company would sell you).

[1995hoo]

...

That means that anyone who calls her from a landline in her new hometown is making not only a toll call, but an out-of-area-code toll call.

...

That seems peculiar unless they've never updated the phone system in that area. We don't pay long-distance charges with our landline, but our provider is Verizon FIOS, so I suppose it's technically a VOIP service rather than a "traditional landline" even though the number is the same and the transition was unnoticeable when FIOS was installed in our neighborhood.

[Poiponen13]

US system should have following rules:
2##-###-#### – NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME; QC, NB, PE, NS, NL
3##-###-#### – PA, MD, DC, VA, WV, NC, SC, GA, FL
4##-###-#### – OH, MI, IN, KY, TN, MS, AL; ON
5##-###-#### – IL, WI, MN, IA, MO, AR, LA
6##-###-#### – ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, TX; SK, MB
7##-###-#### – MT, ID, WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ; AB
8##-###-#### – OR, WA; BC, YT, NT, NU
9##-###-#### – CA; Caribbean

(Extra carriage returns retained because WHY???)

Why are California and the Caribbean in the same region?

Because Caribbean is new addition to NANP, so it receives a lot of unused 9xx area codes.

[kalvado]

US system should have following rules:
2##-###-#### – NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME; QC, NB, PE, NS, NL
3##-###-#### – PA, MD, DC, VA, WV, NC, SC, GA, FL
4##-###-#### – OH, MI, IN, KY, TN, MS, AL; ON
5##-###-#### – IL, WI, MN, IA, MO, AR, LA
6##-###-#### – ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, TX; SK, MB
7##-###-#### – MT, ID, WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ; AB
8##-###-#### – OR, WA; BC, YT, NT, NU
9##-###-#### – CA; Caribbean

(Extra carriage returns retained because WHY???)

Why are California and the Caribbean in the same region?

Because Caribbean is new addition to NANP, so it receives a lot of unused 9xx area codes.

Didn't you start with the fresh reassignment plan?

[hobsini2]

The Federal Reserve districts, which were set up in 1913, are pretty silly for the same reason.

(Yes, Poiponen, they use letters for these sometimes, including as part of the serial numbers of US dollar bills. Hello from District J.)

Don't forget the federal courts:



Why some states use "Central" and some use "Middle" is something I don't know.

I find it more interesting that on the Federal District Courts map that the states of OK and LA have 3 district splits while MI and WI, only have 2.

[mgk920]

The Federal Reserve districts, which were set up in 1913, are pretty silly for the same reason.

(Yes, Poiponen, they use letters for these sometimes, including as part of the serial numbers of US dollar bills. Hello from District J.)

And there is certainly room to expand upon that should the USA ever add to its its land area (Heck, I'm a bit surprised that they have not yet split district 12/L to create a district 13/M).

Mike (happily living in district 7/G)

[Poiponen13]

US system should have following rules:
2##-###-#### – NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME; QC, NB, PE, NS, NL
3##-###-#### – PA, MD, DC, VA, WV, NC, SC, GA, FL
4##-###-#### – OH, MI, IN, KY, TN, MS, AL; ON
5##-###-#### – IL, WI, MN, IA, MO, AR, LA
6##-###-#### – ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, TX; SK, MB
7##-###-#### – MT, ID, WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ; AB
8##-###-#### – OR, WA; BC, YT, NT, NU
9##-###-#### – CA; Caribbean

(Extra carriage returns retained because WHY???)

Why are California and the Caribbean in the same region?

Because Caribbean is new addition to NANP, so it receives a lot of unused 9xx area codes.

Didn't you start with the fresh reassignment plan?

I didn't.

[kalvado]

The Federal Reserve districts, which were set up in 1913, are pretty silly for the same reason.

(Yes, Poiponen, they use letters for these sometimes, including as part of the serial numbers of US dollar bills. Hello from District J.)
...

And there is certainly room to expand upon that should the USA ever add to its its land area (Heck, I'm a bit surprised that they have not yet split district 12/L to create a district 13/M).

Mike (happily living in district 7/G)

There are some plans to expand phone numbering capacity by adding an extra digit - although there may be enough room to keep things going for a while. But some expansion path is there via reserved x9x area codes.
SSN's, on the other hand, may be more interesting. Especially given how critical that information is for personal security.   

[Poiponen13]

Fun telephone numbers:
+1 523-362-4721 (JADEMAISA1)

[hbelkins]

...

That means that anyone who calls her from a landline in her new hometown is making not only a toll call, but an out-of-area-code toll call.

...

That seems peculiar unless they've never updated the phone system in that area. We don't pay long-distance charges with our landline, but our provider is Verizon FIOS, so I suppose it's technically a VOIP service rather than a "traditional landline" even though the number is the same and the transition was unnoticeable when FIOS was installed in our neighborhood.

Our main office number is still the original 606-666 number. When we moved into our new building, our VOIP individual lines were local 606-693 numbers. Last year they did something to the VOIP system and changed the numbers to 502-764 (Louisville) numbers.

[Big John]

Fun telephone numbers:
+1 523-362-4721 (JADEMAISA1)

Phoned companies won't assign numbers that spell out certain words.

[kphoger]

Fun telephone numbers:
+1 523-362-4721 (JADEMAISA1)

That cannot be a traditional telephone number.  The 521—529 area codes are currently reserved for PCS, which is a distinction I don't fully understand.

[kalvado]

Fun telephone numbers:
+1 523-362-4721 (JADEMAISA1)

That cannot be a traditional telephone number.  The 521—529 area codes are currently reserved for PCS, which is a distinction I don't fully understand.

Activated for PCS in 2018, whatever that means.

[kphoger]

Hmmm...  It occurs to me that there's a whole department at my company with 'PCS' in its name.  Nobody in the office today knows what it stands for.  I wonder if it's related.  Guess I'll have to ask someone in that department next time I see one of them.

[kalvado]

Hmmm...  It occurs to me that there's a whole department at my company with 'PCS' in its name.  Nobody in the office today knows what it stands for.  I wonder if it's related.  Guess I'll have to ask someone in that department next time I see one of them.

Thinking about some old discussions and as a pretty wild guess... Those PCS (personal communication services) may go to devices which need a cellular data connection, but don't need an explicitly assigned number and more so no number in the area where they are used.  Kindle, Apple tag, tablets...

[kphoger]

That sounds right, considering what I've read (but not totally understood).

[catch22]

Hmmm...  It occurs to me that there's a whole department at my company with 'PCS' in its name.  Nobody in the office today knows what it stands for.  I wonder if it's related.  Guess I'll have to ask someone in that department next time I see one of them.

Thinking about some old discussions and as a pretty wild guess... Those PCS (personal communication services) may go to devices which need a cellular data connection, but don't need an explicitly assigned number and more so no number in the area where they are used.  Kindle, Apple tag, tablets...

My wife's cardiac pacemaker monitor is another example.