# Do your phone numbers reflect where you live? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2015, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-phone-numbers-reflect-where-you-live/730421 "2015-09-09T11:27:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-phone-numbers-reflect-where-you-live/730421/41 "2015-09-12T03:04:02Z")
Home matches area, cell doesn’t. When I first got a car phone (a big bag phone with the antenna wired onto the roof of the car), you couldn’t buy car phones in my immediate area, and I drove halfway across the next state to buy it, thus the wrong area code. I’ve kept that number since, through all the replacements. My iPhone 6+ does not now have an antenna wired onto the roof of the car. Though, I have to wonder if that wouldn’t improve rural reception (which is why I still have a home phone, though only for calling out). ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-phone-numbers-reflect-where-you-live/730421/42 "2015-09-14T17:51:58Z")
Cell phone only, and my 703 area code is the “right” one. 🙂 (I have an aversion to the 571 area code…) > [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > I grew up in MD and I’ve always had to use the area code when dialing any number. Actually, I remember I was in high school when that happened- they added the 443 and 410 to the 301. > [@DCnDC](#): > > Wow. I’m old enough to remember back to before we had to dial the area code, and the whole state was 301. I remember it being a big hassle to have to start using the area code. > [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > When we moved here (26+ years ago), DC was all 202, the MD burbs (and all the way up through Baltimore) were all 301, and Northern Virginia was all 703 - and you didn’t have to dial an area code to call a number in the other jurisdiction (i.e. we could call DC with a 7-digit number). I think they went to 10-digit dialing - when calling the other areas - a few years after that. According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_codes_410,_443,_and_667), I was in college when 410 was added (which sounds about right) and 443 got added six years later. A year after _that_ I moved to Virginia: I’d gotten used to 410 (especially after my mom’s home number was changed to that area code), but to this day I never remember that 443 is Maryland. (And I’d never heard of the 667 mentioned in the article until just now.) ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-phone-numbers-reflect-where-you-live/730421/43 "2015-09-14T18:10:46Z")
With a nod to the Maryland folks, I chuckled this morning on the way to work as I passed a hand-made sign on the side of the road for tennis lessons that gave a phone number without an area code. It made me realize that I don’t even know what the default area code IS for where I live! ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-phone-numbers-reflect-where-you-live/730421/44 "2015-09-14T18:27:19Z")
I have only a cell phone and my area code is still back home in Indiana, even though I have since lived in NC and now in FL. In a related note, Ms. Cups has her cell phone still on her Wisconsin area code and her work phone, a VOIP phone, is tied to Indianapolis where her company is held, even though she, too, lives in Florida. This is entirely because my parents (and hers) live in our home states and we are still under our respective family plans ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-phone-numbers-reflect-where-you-live/730421/45 "2015-09-14T19:14:01Z")
I should pay more attention to who starts threads rather than starting to read and thinking “Hey, that sounds familiar…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-your-phone-numbers-reflect-where-you-live/730421.md?page=2)