Kind of a difficult question for a poll, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. This thread got me thinking about how little my phone numbers have to do with my locale. Thanks to the internet and cell phones, there’s nothing tying anyone to a specific area code any longer.
For example, I’ve had my current cell number for the last 10 years or so. When I got it, I was living in the Inland Empire area of Southern California, but I haven’t lived out that way since 2009. Still, I’ve never seen a reason to change the number. And when I started thinking about it, I’ve got several friends and coworkers who have moved from other places into SoCal who have also never changed their cell numbers. It’s almost to the point where cell numbers are a better indication of where someone is from than where they are currently.
Similarly, although perhaps less common, I use Vonage for my home phone “land line.” And although I’ve just moved to the east coast, I’ve decided to keep my 213 number. No one I’ve spoken to from my new home (service providers, pizza delivery, etc.) has blinked an eye or acted with any surprise that my area code doesn’t “match” where I live.
So, how well do your home and/or cell phone numbers accurately reflect the area you live in now, based on area code? If they don’t match, why not?
I live in the same area code as when I first got a cell phone, so yes, matches. I’m curious, though - if you now live in DC (say) and you call a local pizza place in DC (say), aren’t you making a long distance call? I’ve wondered about this for awhile.
I think that’s true, but doesn’t almost every cell phone and VOIP plan these days offer free long distance? I didn’t think that phrase had a whole lot of meaning any longer in terms of what it costs to make a phone call.
Is there even such a thing as “long distance” (at least within the USA) if you’re not on a traditional landline (which is the only way you’d have a “wrong” area code)?
“Long distance” essentially doesn’t apply to cellphones under most mobile contracts or service plans.
Another way your provider could charge you for long distance is to use your cell tower rather than your phone number as the starting point for the call.
Not only do the area codes match, they are the original ones for Fort Worth. None of this modern 682 crap, area codes should have a 1 or a 0 as the middle digit, dagnabbit!
Even cooler, the exchange number for my home phone is accurate for the part of town I live in. That’s not always the case with landline number portability now available.
Nope. I’ve had this number for a while, for moves through a few counties in this state as well as a year on the other side of the country. I don’t have a landline, and there’s really no reason for me to change my cell number just because my area code isn’t for the city I currently live in. One of the perks of having a cell phone is not having to worry about that.
Several years ago it would throw off cashiers or some customer service people if they were in the habit of typing in the local area code as they ask, but even that hasn’t happened in quite a while.
Similar experience here. All my numbers match my locale, but my GF moved from New York to Chicago a few years ago and didn’t change her cell number. Her area code is very similar to a local area code (has a 1 instead of a 0 in the middle), and I thought people would write down the local one instead of the one she told them. But it hasn’t happened. I guess people are less parochial on this topic than one might expect.
My home phone is 330, which is “right” for my house. My cell is a “coveted” 216 which is just Cuyahoga County I think (which is not where I am, but where Cleveland is).
My business partner has a 440 number which is the rest of NE Ohio, but he has lived in Georgia for the last 10 years.
I voted other because when it was issued my phone number was accurate for the area I live in now, however when the great 416/905 split occurred (HOLY cow it was 1993), my lovely 416 phone became out of area for the location in which I now reside.
I’ve had this cell number since 1991, I stuck with a horrible provider for years until number portability finally became available because it was the one number the kids had memorized.
I’m in the MD exurbs of DC (area code 410), but I pay a small monthly surcharge on my landline so that I have a 301 area code in an exchange that’s local to the DC area. This way, people in the DC area can call my home without its being long distance. While this matters less with each passing year, since (a) most people with landlines have contracts that include unlimited long distance as part of the base price, and (b) cell phones, it’s still a handy thing. For instance, this means it’s a local call from office to home on days when one of us is at work and the other is at home.
Both our mobile numbers reflect the rule of xkcd above. As does our VOIP fax line which we retained in the old “area code” after our cross-country move. We kept that for continuity with our old customers.
I’m old enough to remember not only “long distance”, but expensive long distance. That’s another now-meaningless term right up there with “air mail”, “telegram”, “telex”, and “horseless carriage”.
I voted that neither matches, but I’m only about 10 miles outside of the boundary between 425 and 206 area codes. The phone company doesn’t even treat a call between those two zones as long distance. (Not that long distance is particularly relevant these days either).
I would probably change my numbers if I moved to another state, though.
I remember when people in a layover at an airport would take the opportunity to call their friends who lived in that city, because it was so much cheaper than calling them “long distance” from home.
Mine match. I’ve had my landline number for 15 years. I switched cell phone providers a couple of years ago, but couldn’t port my number over. My new provider assigned me a number within my area code, apparently based on my home address, so that’s still a thing for wireless numbers.