bellutta@irst.it (Paolo Bellutta) (08/31/90)
In Italy the area codes (called prefix) is related to the place (more or less like the prefix in the US). 01xx is north west, 02 is Milan, 03xx is Lombardia, 04xx is north east, 05xx is central, 06 is Rome, 07xx is south west, 08xx is south east, 09xx are the isles. The same occours with the ZIP codes. The prefix can have two digits (Rome and Milan only) three digits (main cities) [example 045 is Verona] four digits (the smaller areas) [0461 is Trento]. Phone numbers usually have from four to eight digits. I noticed that in the US while prefixes are related to the place, area code are not (212 is Manhattan NYC, 213 is L.A.!!!). Is there a reason? Moreover, are there other countries that use prefix-place correlation like in Italy? Paolo Bellutta I.R.S.T. vox: +39 461 814417 loc. Pante' di Povo fax: +39 461 810851 38050 POVO (TN) e-mail: bellutta@irst.uucp ITALY bellutta%irst@uunet.uu.net [Moderator's Note: Ecept perhaps by coincidence, area codes in the United States do not follow in a path one after another. When area codes were originally laid out, we were using mostly rotary dail phones. It takes longer to dial nines and zeros than ones and twos. So the big cities were all given low area code numbers, on the assumption more people would be calling those places and the dialing would be more convenient with 'short pull' digits. That is why NYC has 212 (quickest, easiest code for rotary dialers); Chicago has 312; Los Angeles has 213; Detroit has 313, etc. Now of course with tone dialing it really doesn't matter. But the area codes do relate to a specific part of the United States or Canada. Its just that they do not fall in any set pattern, except as noted above. PAT]
Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil> (08/31/90)
Here are some comments which I wrote with the international readers in mind. They apply to country code 1. The present area codes are of the form N0X and N1X (where N is any single digit except 0 or 1, and X is any single digit INCLUDING 0 and 1), and were (according to my readings of Telecom) originally laid out so that N0X was assigned to states/provinces having only one area code, and N1X was assigned to states/provinces having more than one area code. (The area codes were given out both to states of the U.S. and to provinces of Canada.) A lot of area codes have been created since then, but you still find that: If a state/province has one area code, it's N0X (this is NO LONGER true the other way around); N1X is in a state/province having more than one area code (but N0X now occurs in some states having more than one area code). Area codes do not cross state or province lines (but this rule is relaxed w/r to Canada's Northwest Territories and w/r to Prince Edward Island in the Canadian Maritime area). Sometime around 1995, area codes of N0X/N1X form are projected to run out, and area codes will have to generalize to NXX. This will prompt many changes in dialing instructions, but some areas (such as Maryland) already have dialing instructions which could accommodate NXX area codes.
patrickh@rice.edu (Patrick L Humphrey) (09/01/90)
In article <11565@accuvax.nwu.edu> cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 610, Message 6 of 11 >Here are some comments which I wrote with the international readers in >mind. They apply to country code 1. >The present area codes are of the form N0X and N1X (where N is any >single digit except 0 or 1, and X is any single digit INCLUDING 0 and >1), and were (according to my readings of Telecom) originally laid out >so that N0X was assigned to states/provinces having only one area >code, and N1X was assigned to states/provinces having more than one >area code. (The area codes were given out both to states of the U.S. >and to provinces of Canada.) A lot of area codes have been created >since then, but you still find that: >If a state/province has one area code, it's N0X (this is NO LONGER >true the other way around); N1X is in a state/province having more >than one area code (but N0X now occurs in some states having more than >one area code). It never was arranged that way. Kentucky has always been split between 502 and 606, Texas has always had 806 (with five N1Xs at the time), Oklahoma has always been 405 and 918, and Nebraska has always had 402 and 308. (Washington has always been split between 206 and 509, as well.) "Always" in this instance means at the time of the NPA assignments being made in 1954. The NPA assignments were made seemingly on consideration of how long the NPA would take to be dialed, since that was of concern in an age where pulse dialing was the only kind available. The reasoning was that the areas with large numbers of calls should get the NPA numbers that could be dialed the quickest -- hence New York City got 212, Los Angeles 213, Chicago 312, Detroit 313, and so forth. Patrick L. Humphrey (patrickh@rice.edu) Networking & Computing Systems Rice University, Houston, Texas My opinion is not that of Rice, except this one: BEAT THE *&$#! OUTTA TEXAS!
pc@ctt.ctt.bellcore.com (09/05/90)
Patrick Humphrey wrote: > the only kind available. The reasoning was that the areas with large > numbers of calls should get the NPA numbers that could be dialed the > quickest -- hence New York City got 212, Los Angeles 213, Chicago 312, That's what I always heard. yet, Pittsburgh (population of the metro area about one million?) has 412, and Phily (population of the metro area about five million?) has 215, which is surely anomalous under the above rule. Similarly, why Austin (512) and Cleveland (216)? Were there other technical considerations at the time? (Apart from physical proximity of adjacent numbers, such as 212 not being near 213 and 312 etc) pc [Moderator's Note: 412 and 215 are about the same length: seven pulls versus eight. 512 and 216 are close: eight pulls versus nine. It is not like Nevada or North Carolina (19 pulls) or southern Indiana's 812 area (11 pulls). PAT]
cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) (09/05/90)
In article <11535@accuvax.nwu.edu> bellutta@irst.it (Paolo Bellutta) writes: [asking why North American area codes aren't systematic by region] The Esteemed Moderator notes that large cities were assigned area codes involving minimum pulsing on a rotary dial, but says: >Its just that they do not fall in any set pattern, except as noted >above. My understanding is that the codes were >deliberately< assigned to spread the codes around the country, to minimize confusion. Here in 212-land, I often call 718 (Brooklyn/Queens/Staten Island) to the east and 201 (Northern New Jersey) to the west. If these were 211 and 213 respectively, as a systematic plan would require given that Manhattan/Bronx is 212, I would be more likely to confuse them. On the other hand, it's always seemed interesting to me that AT&T itself is located in 201, the first area code in numerical order. cowan@marob.masa.com (aka ...!hombre!marob!cowan)
dan@sics.se (Dan Sahlin) (09/06/90)
In <11535@accuvax.nwu.edu> bellutta@irst.it (Paolo Bellutta) writes: >...are there other >countries that use prefix-place correlation like in Italy? Most contries in the world seem to have a prefix-place correlation, so North America is rather an exception to the rule (although it is a large one). In Sweden (as in most contries in Europe) the length of the area code is inversely proportional to the size of the city. So Stockholm is 08, Uppsala is 018 and Trelleborg is 0410. Dan Sahlin, SICS, Sweden email: dan@sics.se
0002909785@mcimail.com (J. Stephen Reed) (09/09/90)
Many recent messages expressed puzzlement at the North American Numbering Plan being so unsystematic about "scattering" the area codes all over this continent without any visible rules behind it. When I was a compulsive 12-year-old and had alphabetized my mother's phone listings (I was tired of 50 cardboard markers in the phone book), I noticed the same thing, matched this up in my head with ZIP codes going from east to west ... I really was a compulsive kid ... and asked the same thing. She got hold of an cousin who had worked at Northwestern Bell. What I was told then was that it related to the clicks of the rotary phone dial. New York City (212), Chicago (312), and Los Angeles (213) were the biggest cities and called the most, and to have only a few clicks saved time for the long distance operators. Someplace like North Dakota would have 701 because it was <way> out of the way and got few calls. Someplace like Newfoundland would get 709 because it was <really way> out of the way. This always made sense to me. When I became more libertarian in my thinking, with a healthy disdain for that region Inside the Beltway, it always made me happy that 202-land was ... once ... considered 'way out on the fringe of America. It still is! That same cousin was the one who taught us kids to use "11916" to ring another extension in our house, causing no end of fiendish delight to us and no end of frustration to my folks. Steve Reed Liberty Network, Ltd. * P.O. Box 11296 * Chicago, IL 60611 0002909785@mcimail.com
tell@oscar.cs.unc.edu (Stephen Tell) (09/09/90)
In article <11862@accuvax.nwu.edu> cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 627, Message 1 of 9 >In article <11535@accuvax.nwu.edu> bellutta@irst.it (Paolo Bellutta) >writes: >[asking why North American area codes aren't systematic by region] ...... >On the other hand, it's always seemed interesting to me that AT&T >itself is located in 201, the first area code in numerical order. I had noticed that myself. Soon, however, half of AT&T-land (northern New Jersey) gets split off into 908. 908 is now in the "permissive dialing" phase; the new code works but doesn't become mandatory until next spring, I think. Some time ago, someone speculated here that the geography of the 201/908 split was a way for Bellcore making life slightly more complicated for their former AT&T brethren. Steve Tell e-mail: tell@wsmail.cs.unc.edu usmail: #5L Estes Park apts CS Grad Student, UNC Chapel Hill. 919 968 1792 Carrboro NC 27510 [Moderator's Note: Although 201 is 'first in numerical order', it isn't really the fastest, since 0 is actually 10 on the phone dial. 201 = 13 pulls, compared to 212, which is really 'first' with 5 pulls. And Steve Reed, in the message before this one, correctly notes that 202, although second in numerical order, is actually in the mid-range of area codes from a pulse-dial perspective, requiring 14 pulls. Maybe AT&T was saying 'first comes Mother, then Our Nation's Capitol, then the rest of you turkeys!' :) PAT]
Dave Turner <dmt@ptsfa.pacbell.com> (09/11/90)
At the time area codes were assigned, AT&Ts headquarters was at 195 Broadway in Manhattan not in New Jersey. If AT&T had wanted to be first, Manhattan would have a different area code. It would be interesting to know who did the initial area code assigments. If it were done by someone in Bell Labs (mostly in NJ) then 201 might make some sense.
cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) (09/14/90)
How about these for neighboring area codes? 301 (Maryland) and 302 (Delaware) are next to each other. And then I hear (in this Digest) that 917 was not a good choice for the east bay area in California? (That area, which borders 916, is going to be 510 after it's split from 415.) A Moderator's Note said 19 clicks (he used "pulls") for North Carolina. That only refers to the 919 area. There are 21 clicks needed for dialing area code 704.
ask@cblph.att.com (Arthur S Kamlet) (09/15/90)
In article <11963@accuvax.nwu.edu>, dmt@ptsfa.pacbell.com (Dave Turner) writes: > At the time area codes were assigned, AT&Ts headquarters was at 195 > Broadway in Manhattan not in New Jersey. If AT&T had wanted to be > first, Manhattan would have a different area code. AT&T's headquarters are still in Manhattan -- 550 Madison Avenue > It would be interesting to know who did the initial area code > assigments. If it were done by someone in Bell Labs (mostly in NJ) > then 201 might make some sense. I suspect the work was done at West Street in Manhattan, but that's just a guess. Art Kamlet a_s_kamlet@att.com AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus