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Do you have to dial the area code for a local number?


Alpo

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Atlanta, to me, is a strange town. My town is the county seat of my county. We have one area code, that not only covers the entire county, but the rest of the state for a hundred miles in any direction also.

 

Atlanta has nine counties in it. It also has four area codes.

 

I can understand, kinda, about being in area code 404 and calling someone in area code 770 on the other side of town, and having to dial 770 first.

 

But when you're in 404, and you're calling your next door neighbor who is also in 404, why do you have to dial 404 first?

 

Does this happen other places, or is it strictly and Atlanta phenomena?

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12 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Atlanta, to me, is a strange town. My town is the county seat of my county. We have one area code, that not only covers the entire county, but the rest of the state for a hundred miles in any direction also.

 

Atlanta has nine counties in it. It also has four area codes.

 

I can understand, kinda, about being in area code 404 and calling someone in area code 770 on the other side of town, and having to dial 770 first.

 

But when you're in 404, and you're calling your next door neighbor who is also in 404, why do you have to dial 404 first?

 

Does this happen other places, or is it strictly and Atlanta phenomena?

 

Now Nation wide. Simplified version is that due to all the gadgets with phone numbers the telephone system was in danger of running out of numbers. By increasing the requirement to dial all 10 numbers they freed up millions of new phone numbers.

 

I believe Canada also requires 10 digit dialing for all calls.

 

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During the late 80s and early 90s, the standard telephone 7 number became not enough to cover some areas.

The areas out grow the available 7 numbers combinations.

The area codes would direct calls to specific exchanges but the area where the available numbers where not enough, the areas where divided in to smaller sections and given their own area code.

This works for a short time but the areas kept having to divide in to more areas with their own area code.

This forces making the 10 digit phone number mandatory for all areas.

This soon required adding the 1 at the front to avoid confusion with international numbers.

Now all phone numbers are 11 digits and you use all 11 to call across the street.

 

 

 

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In New Hampshire, no, but there is only one area code.  

 

I am am so close to the Massachusetts border that sometimes I feel like paying taxes and if at home I must enter area code.  Most of the time I just tap a name and my iPhone does the fight thing.

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I'm in the 216 area code here in NE OHIO, It covers all of Cuyahoga county and I do not have to dial 216, but surrounding counties are 440 and 330 and I have to dial them.

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The Middle Tennessee area has been 615 for as long as we had area codes. Last year we were told that they had run out of numbers so a new area code (629) was overlaid on 615 and now the number of available numbers is doubled. And we have to dial 615 to find Jersey Bratt's phone, in the same room.

 

Imis

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Well, ya see, back, way back, before area codes, ya picked up the phone and dialed ‘0’ and told the operatah they ya wanted ta call yer brother in Los Angelesand gave her the numbat and she made the switchboard connections and called you back when bro was on the line. Sometimes she would listen in on the call but that was common only when a priest was calling a nun or vice versa but I digress.  

 

Then in some smart guy at Bell Labs, which is redundant because all the guys at Bell Labs were smart even the janitors just look at all their patents. Some guy at Bell Labs figured out how to divide up the country into about 140 areas. Ya see, earlier when they made up telephone exchanges so you could call people in other towns or, for big cities, other parts of the city, they made up a system of seven digit numbers where the first thre numbers never had a ‘0’ or ‘1’ as the second digit, I think there was a Bell Labs patent on that but I don’t think anybody else could have stolen the idea because they would have to have their own telephone company and lines and customers and and, GAWD we loved Ma Bell. But, again, I diary.  

 

In here somewhere, to get out of your town or state the 1 prefix for long distance was added.

 

So the Area Code was invented. Area codes were three digit numbers with the first digit from 2 to 7 the second digit 0 or 1 and the third digit  1 to 9 or something like that. Then the nation was connected with cross bar switching where primitive electrical thingies driven by magnetic stuff could connect you with bro in Los Angeles (or the nun) without having the entire local switchboard listening in on the call.

 

 

the country was happy until the Los Angelinos and New Yorkers multiplied and area codes had to be divided into multiple area codes. At first it was done geographically, draw a line and north LA is this area code is here and that area code is there.

 

eventually the scheme ran out of numbers and it was commanded that area codes could have digits other than 0 or 1 in the second digit. This created an ambiguity between area codes and zones, the directive was issued and whenever the numbers became ambiguous , the subscriber, YOU, must dial the ten digit number.

 

Operators were retired and mafioso and priests and nuns could now have private conversations.

 

 

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After reading Marshal’s post I remembered that dialing the area codes within the same area code also became a thing because a lot of businesses, agencies and government departments went to VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) on their telephone systems.

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Connecticut currently has two area codes, 203 & 860, mine is 860.   I do have dial at least 10 digits when making a local call.  Sometimes I have to dial a 1 plus 860 if the destination number is no longer considered "local" by the telephone company.  Equally sometimes I do NOT have to dial a 1 if I am dialing area code 203.   At least in CT the area code being dialed does not determine if the call is a toll call or not.  It is a function of how far away the other number is by distance.. 

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My cell phone has an area code of 850 (FL Panhandle).  We moved to Dothan a few years ago (area code 334).  Since my cell is 850, even local calls in the 334 area have to have the area code dialed as well.

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Speaking of all these area codes.

Does anyone wonder about Social Security numbers. You'd think we would have run over the 9 digit numbers long ago considering we have 330,000,000 people living on the country. I know they use the numbers over a few years after a person dies.  The numbers used to have a code; area-date of sign up- another number.

 

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16 minutes ago, Alpo said:

With a 9 digit number, there are exactly 1 billion possibilities. 330 million people? We got a lot of numbers left.

 

There are folks like me that have multiple phone numbers though so we may not have as many left as you think. I have 4 my wife has 3; granted we share one but add my son's cell so we're one family taking up 7 different numbers and say that's reasonably common. 

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Tyrel, I was responding to Assassin's Social Security Number comment.

 

You may have seven phone numbers among the three of you, but you should only have three SSNs.

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2 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Tyrel, I was responding to Assassin's Social Security Number comment.

 

You may have seven phone numbers among the three of you, but you should only have three SSNs.

oops, sometimes I skip posts :blush: 

I should've realized there's 10 digits in a phone number, not 9.

 

But it does make me wonder, are social security numbers reissued after someone dies? 

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We've had to use the area code for local calls here in Ontario for a number of years.

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Been a while, but I remember the Chicago area went from one area code to at least three.  Colorado has, I believe, at least four, and, metro-Denver is divided between 303 and 720, with 970 covering some of the rural areas and 719, the southern part of the state.  In the 303 and 720 numbers you simply have to dial the ten digit number for 303 to 303 and 720 to 720, and also from one AC to the other.  From those two to the others, you have to use the 1-AC-XXX-XXXX combo.  Some of my family lived for 10 years in Arizona.  They have cell phones, and a call to them requires the 1-XXX-XXX-XXXX prefix, and is a long-distance call, even if they are in the next room!!:wacko:  When we finally have a colony on the Moon or Mars, who knows what the combo will be! :rolleyes:

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