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jazz-- you'll be sorry you asked..
Phone numbers are made up from a series of groups.
011 is the internation access code.
then there is the country code.. A two digit number,
then an a two or three digit city code.. In US, known as area code.
An exchange code – directs you to a specific exchange (or switching office) finally, the last 4 digits go your house.
When direct dialing first became available, most phone where analog.. (rotary dial)
a phone, sitting, unused, takes about 5volts to keep it active, but 40 volts to ring, get dial tone, or speak.
So, the minute you pick up the reciever, energy use goes up– big time! And the company doesn't start to collect money, till you connect with your party.. So the telephone companies had an interest in speeding your connection time.
To speed the time from when you picked up the reciever, till when you where connected, cities with high volumes of calls got area codes with "low numbers" , since on a rotary phone, you can dial 212, much faster than 909.
similarly, phone companies, assigned exchanges to business areas, with lower number, or charge extra for numbers with zero's . and smaller communities got higher numbers for exchanges then the surrounding city.
Digital dialing changed the economics, since its just as fast to dial 909 as 212. But the old exchanges still reflect the economic alignment. (And for the first 20 years, of digital phones, the company actually charge you more to use them, even though they saved money when you did, because 1) they dial (and connected) faster, and 2) could be programed for speed dial!)
Then to make things more interesting, in large cities, (NY, Chicago, LA) most phone systems have run out of numbers.
NY's solution was new area codes. For the past 10 years, only Manhattan is 212, the rest of the city is 718. Cell phones, beepers, etc., are 917, and we still have run out of numbers. Manhattan now has a second (and hated!) area code.
but even that was not enough. Now days, all most every phone system in US requires 1+ area code. (Then the number) the 1+ lets them use area coded that do not follow the old standard (the old standard was, all area codes have 1 or 0 in the middle.)
since old exchanges always used letters as a prefix, FOrdham, BEechwood, MUrrey, and 1 and 0 didn't have letters associated with them, these numbers where never used as exchanges..
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Carpal Tunnel
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and a new area code in California, just outside SF, is 510--is close to, and part of the new silicon valley.
it is called Nickel and Dime (five and 10 cents, US) .
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Carpal Tunnel
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the first two digits
These used to be words time back way back. Example, my phone number of youth was LAkeview 5-xxxx. Before that it would have been LAKeview-xxxx. Nowadays it would be 525-xxxx. New exchanges, when created, didn't have that restriction applied to them. Area codes were always of the form n0n or n1n because they *weren't possible exchanges, 1 and 0 not having letters associated with them. That has all gone out the window, defenestrated by the ravages of overpopulation and burgeoning phone requirements.
Companies give out their numbers as all letter combinations such as 1-800-MATTRESS because they are easy to remember. The fact that they are harder to dial can be handled by writing the number down just before you call and converting to, in this case, 1-800-628-8737. It's easier to handle this somewhat tedious process with pencil and paper than it is with finger and keypad.
Remember, convert, dial.
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I, for one, love the 'words'. In fact, I frequently will find a way to change a friends number into a word that I can remember. Because I live in a town of only three prefixes, I can remember those, but have a terrible time with the last four.
For example, my friend Jenny has the ugliest dog in the world. Her last four numbers happen to spell UGLY. I could never remember 8459 if I had to. On top of that, I'm not a big 'phone' person. I do not call 'just to chat'. I guess if I called people more often I would memorize their numbers and that would be the end of it.
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Any national/regional differences or is it all personal preference?
There was a pizza place in my hometown with the number 444-4333. They always gave it as "four 4's, three 3's."
There's a comedian (Kevin James) who does a great routine about the frustration of dealing with people who don't follow the standard bah-bah-bah...bah-bah..bah-bah rhythm when telling you their number (Yeah, my number is one...twenty-one, two-oh-three, six...teen). It makes it almost impossible to remember.
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Carpal Tunnel
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time back way back.....
and remember "station to station" vs "person to person"? a few years ago, watching an old movie (i think it was The Third Man) my son asked me what exactly is meant by "station to station"... and for us real old times, remember when you had to schedule a long distance phone call?
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Carpal Tunnel
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time back way back.....
and remember "station to station" vs "person to person"? a few years ago, watching an old movie (i think it was The Third Man) my son asked me what exactly is meant by "station to station"... and for us real old timers, remember when you had to schedule a long distance phone call?
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people who don't follow the standard bah-bah-bah...bah-bah..bah-bah rhythm when telling you their number
The UK has recently changed numbers in several exchanges including ours. The old 01705 123456 is now officially 023 9212 3456 but many people (including my wife) can't handle the new parsing and quote it as 02392 123456. My wife gets upset with my using the new format, even though it has a meaning (the area code is 023 not 02392).
So I know exactly what you mean.
Rod
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But the trouble is the complete pig's ear they have made of all the changes - and what is it, 3 major rollouts within 10 years? Now we all grope for patterns without any clear template: the code can be anything from 3 to 5 digits! and the number can be sometimes in groups of 3 and 4, or 3 and 5, or 4 and 4....
What a bloody disaster of a country this is for simple things like that.
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i understand the printers and stationery stores all love it!
new phone numbers for business every couples of years! all new order forms, new business cards, new letterhead.. even cheap business have to at least order stick on labels with their new telephone number..
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