All calls in southern Nevada require ten digits now and have since August 2014.
Actually, according to Wikipedia, apparently it’s LA, Chicago, and New York, that require the initial “1” even for local calls. So I guess I fall under that exception. Looks like cellphones ignore it. I’ve always been in the habit of dialing that 1, due to local rules.
Just to clarify, you are not required to dial 1 before the area code for a long distance call in the US when using a wireless phone. You do when using a landline, although some companies are beginning to eliminate that.
One of the surprises about moving back to the US and to Hawaii was the inclusion of the area code for the state (808) in virtually all phone numbers. Here you can include or not include it in when calling locally.
(I’m also surprised to see long-distance charges virtually eliminated. On my AT&T plan, I can call anywhere in the country at no extra charge. When did this start?)
Thank you for the replies. It’s hard keeping up with all the changes in phones. I learned a lot from this thread.
Most landline phones still place the call as soon as enough digits are entered-- It’s not like cell phones where you enter all of the digits and then hit the “call” button. So you have three options for how to distinguish local calls from long distance: You can make sure that there’s no number that can be both a valid area code and a valid exchange number (what they used to do, before the quantities of both were greatly expanded), you can require all calls, even local ones, to include the area code, or you can require a prefix like 1 before an out-of-area call.
The reason it’s inconsistent across the country is that various local phone companies made different decisions here.
About a year ago we had a thread about Idaho getting a second area code. Until that thread I had no idea that some places required you to use the full ten digits, however I’ve always programmed them all in, partially because then it looks all nice and organized instead of some having them and some not, but moreso because if I’m in an area with spotty reception and my phone is roaming, even local calls need the area code, so it’s just easier to have it there already.
Ah, that’s right. It used to be that a “0” or “1” had to be the second digit in an area code until they expanded it sometime in the 90s. (And the middle digit of the three-digit exchange that followed the area code could not be a 0 or 1.) I remember us getting the first wave of non-0-or-1-middle-digit area codes here in the Chicago area around 1996.
Another difference: With cell phones and VOIP phones, you can put your phone into a different area code fairly easily. If you don’t store the local area code, when you’re in another area code your phone will try to dial the local number for that area code instead of the place you want. People aren’t as likely to move VOIP phones around, but cell phones definitely switch area codes routinely.
Like XKCD says: the anatomy of a U.S. cell phone number is the area code of the place you lived in 2005, followed by seven random digits.
I’ve had to use area codes, on both landlines and mobile numbers, for at least a decade in my home area. Because of that, I’ve always entered area codes in my phones, but never used the +1 - I even went so far as to delete it from all my contacts when I made the switch to the iPhone a few years ago.
Now, I’m using my US-purchased iPhone with a local provider’s SIM card in the Middle Eastern country I’m working in, and I had to go back and add the +1 to all my contacts to be able to call them (actual calls, not Facetime calls).