Some Californians set to begin 11-digit dialing

The San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | July 23, 2006 | Dan Laidman

[JockoManning]

My relatives in the DC metro area have been doing that for a while, too. Forever between Maryland, DC, and Virginia, and for a couple years now to everyone else in the Virginia 'burbs.

Also, about ten years ago, there were several phone outages in Northern VA, where you could still call DC and MD, but not anyone else in Virginia. Then it was announced that local in-state calls would go through if one did use the area code.

Everywhere I have lived since then, anytime there are phone system problems, I try dialing the area code first with local numbers to see if I can find a circuit to get my call through thataway.

jm

[BlessedBeGod]

This happened around Chicago a while ago.

[TheDon]

No one will notice. You only need update your phone directory once.

[Xenalyte]

713 and 281 are geographical - at least as regards landlines - but 832 is an overlay here.

[cardinal4]

We are still only dialing 7 locally here in STL..

[Coldwater Creek]

Well, I remember when our phone number in Downey, Calif. was Metcalf 555.

[Koblenz]

I always thought overlays were stupid. Except that cell phones should be on separate area codes, because they really don't have a geographical home. 917 in NYC is sort of like this.

Does anyone still pay for long distance calls on an individual basis? Here I've got unlimited long distance.

[dalereed]

Los Angeles was a lot bigger so since the mid 1939s our number was OLympia 8388 and it was later changed to NOrmandy 48388 and when they instituted area codes they made it 213-664-8388.

[South40]

I thought California was supposed to be ahead of the rest of the country in everything.

Actually, we're up to three hours behind.

[tophat9000]

There's a reason for that. The dramatic growth in computer-based communication in the last 10 years (e-mail, instant messaging, teleconferencing, etc.) has rendered the fax machine nearly obsolete. This has slowed down the growth in demand for new phone numbers in most metropolitan areas.

The flip side on this is the cell phone explosion... It not really land lines numbers but cell numbers that are eating up area codes... we would have been better off to have cell and land lines have different not intermixed areacodes/prefix like some other country do

So let say you have 310 as an area code... 310 would only be given to land lines ... but if you have a cell in the same area you would has a 3 digit cell network "area code" prefix that would only be for cell phones

The whole idea behind area codes is for a hierarchal routing system or "address" for the call

[Bernard]

I live in the 847 area code, and we have had to dial 11 digits for several years. And, with all the numbers stored in my cell phone, it's not that often that I have to dial 11 digits anyway.

Just think, if computers could have been programmed to just add one more digit at the end of all numbers, there would be no need to dial 11 digits.

[Yaelle]

LOL, those old "word" prefixes. We had POplar and DIamond.

[NCjim]

Same growing up in Western NC - we had one long ring - two short rings was the other side of the party line. Back when dirt was new... *g

[freedumb2003]

10-digit dialing is the invention of the Devil himself. And it is not used in California.

I travel a LOT. There is no reason in the world I should have to dial the area code I am in.

But (as the article says and we'll see what happens -- last time they tried this people rose up violently), if you have to dial your own area code then you should be allowed to dial the "1."

There is NOTHING stupider than a voice saying "you do not to have to dial 1..." If the thing knew my intent, it should have just put the call through. If I am dialing the 666 area code and start with 1-666 it should KNOW there isn't a 2-666 and just put me through!

But I have had to work with the idiots who do telecommunications systems programming. These guys are engineers with no programming expertise and that has been the case since switches went digital. It is like having a medical examination by a forensic pathologist. They know where all the parts go but they don't know how they hang together.

I was a Telecommunications Manager and had to work with these algorithmic novices. I know of what I speak. Now I work with and real systems have had to hook real computer systems to these underdesigned pieces of crap. Most of them don't have a development system and NONE have the full array pf testing environments that have been standard in real computing for 40 years!

[SoCal Pubbie]

I agree with you. Australia I believe has 8 digit phone numbers. The whole USA should have switched years ago, when it would have been less painful to do so.

How long ago was that switch to 7 in LA? Must have been a while. As a kid in the early 60's we had 7 in the Orange County.

[aomagrat]

If Mayberry gets another area code, does that mean that the phone company has to hire someone to help Sara?

[Melas]

11? Most of Texas is 10 digit dialing. Where is the extra digit?

[dalereed]

at least in that era I knew exactly where anyone was by what their prefix was anywhere in L.A. or Orange County.

What really started to make thing dificult is when they started switching from manual relays to digital relays that took up about 10% of the space and numbers could be changed, hooked up, or disconnected with a simple computer entry.

They took entire areas, shut down the entire system for switch over and you got new numbers from a switching facility that had been converted already.

After they did that you couldn't keep track of where the numbers were.

It was about the same time that they broke up ATT and Pac Bell because we worked on every telephone company building ib L.A. putting in deviding walls so ATT employees couldn't get to Pac Bell employees, what a joke!

[Melas]

My question exactly. Where is the 11th digit coming from?

[dalereed]

"How long ago was that switch to 7 in LA?"

It was in the late 1940s as I remember.