In U.S. phone numbers, the first three digits are the area code. The next three digits are the prefix. What are the last four digits called?
IIRC, I was told the middle three were the station and the last four the exchange.
Line Number. It goes (Area code) Local Exchange-Line number.
<phone geek calling in>
We studied the traditional phone company in electronics school.
Yes, the first three digits in a North American phone number are the area code; the middle three digits are the exchange code or central office code; and the last four digits are the station number or line number. Terminology varies slightly.
Other trivia: we learned that brackets around part of a number indicate that that part need not be dialled at all times. Thus the number (416) 555-1212, when written with brackets, indicates that it can be dialled 555-1212 in some circumstances (i. e. when local in an area that still allows seven-digit dialling). Many areas require dialling the area code with all calls; in such areas, the number would then be written 416-555-1212 without the brackets. Many people are in fact doing this. Other symbols like - or / or . between the parts of the number don’t really mean anything.
Seems I got my terms backward. Apologies.
Thanks, all.
I’m writing programs that (in part) retrieve phone numbers. For the last four digits my variable name is PHONE-REST. (Of course I could call the three parts PHONE-AREA, FREDDIE, and SPLUNGE for all the program cares.) I guess it’s just as easy to keep using PHONE-REST as it is to use PHONE-LINE.
Splunge for me too!
Pardon me for introducing a bit of history. The first phone numbers I remember had three letters (the exchange) followed by four digits. But in a small town only the four. Our phone number was GRA-3277. There was a reason. An exchange used a 100 x 100 plug board and (this goes back to manual operators, a bit before my time) and you wanted to talk to GRA-3278, the operator ran a plug from the location (32,77) on the board to (32,78). 100 x 100 was the largest feasible number on a manual board. If you called, say SHE-3277 the Granite operator called the Sherwood operator and each plugged in the appropriate number, while connecting them to an interchange. Later our number became GR2-3277, actually the same but they could introduce GR3, GR4, etc. Things were no longer manual so an exchange didn’t represent a single location, but many “exchanges” could be in the same location. They eventually brought in unpronounceable exchanges, like XX and eventually gave up on the letters (though they are still on North American “dials” (I still do have one phone with an actual dial). Here in Montreal they have overlayed a new exchange and all dialing is 10 digits (although the same software that tells me to dial 514 could just as well do the job–Bell Canada serving us better).
Area codes used to have to have a 0 or 1 in the middle and were not permitted a 0 or 1 at either end, so that the easiest one to dial (in the days of dial) was 212. Guess who got that? When my daughter moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn, she had her very memorable 212 number moved to her cell phone so she wouldn’t lose it.
“Area code”. They overlaid a new area code (438) on Montréal, not an exchange code. (They did the same here in Toronto in 2001 with area code 647.)
In an area with multiple area codes accessible locally, you have to dial the area code so that you get the right seven-digit number. There could be a 647-555-1000, a 416-555-1000, a 905-555-1000, and a 289-555-1000 all accessible locally from me. Likewise in Montréal, how to distinguish 438-555-1000 from 514-555-1000 without the area code?
But I agree that if the system is smart enough to detect a local call when we’re dialling 1 plus the ten-digit number, it should be smart enough to let the call through. Doesn’t dialling the 1* indicate that we’re willing to pay long-distance? Why should we care whether it’s an unexpected local call? That’s like a free bonus!
Yes, I hate mandatory toll alerting.
[sub]*In our area. I’m aware that there are areas in North America that dial differently, and 1 means “area code follows”, not “long-distance call follows”.[/sub]
A bit OT but I found a site that tell you everything you ever wanted to know about telephone numbers, area codes, history of phone numbers, old maps, etc…
It’s called Lincmad
The owner even has several plans on how they will eventually introduce longer telephone numbers
Just had to brag a little: I recently got my first cellphone. The area code was the same one I grew up with (but is no longer the area code for that region, in which I no longer live anyway). I had my choice of three prefixes, and one of them was ALSO the one I grew up with! Now I can enjoy a nice bit of nostalgia everytime I use my cell.
Wow. You *are *old.
(Last time I heard those words, my parents’ friends were using them.)
Yes, his maps are the best ones I’ve seen for area codes. The local phone books here don’t even try to keep up anymore. They still don’t have area code 972 for Plano, Texas, even though my cousin had a 972 number there ten years ago!
Actually, New York city got it because it was the fastest area code on a dial system. And there were a lot of calls going into New York. The line was tied up during the dialing process, but with no revenue to the phone company – toll charges didn’t start until the connection was made.
So it made economic sense for the phone company to assign the faster area codes to cities that had a lot of incoming long distance calls. Thus NYC=212, Los Angeles=213, Chicago=312, etc. The fact that such area codes were easier for people to dial was secondary to making the connection faster.
And forgetful and confused, as later posts make clear.
Eh?
I’m not aware of any areas like that, and I don’t know how the switch would know to route a toll call if 1+ didn’t mean “toll call follows”. Fight my ignorance?
With the current ESS (electronic switching systems) used by the phone company, it’s possible to separate the switching functions from the later billing.
Thus the 1+ indicates a call going outside the area code, so the switch can direct it to an outgoing trunk. Later, the connection records are passed to the billing computers, which determine the charges for that call. They can be programmed to check an area code table, and not charge long-distance for calls to area codes within the same metro area. Just like they check your calling plan, and may not charge long-distance rates if you still have minutes left on your monthly plan. It’s certainly possible, electronically.
But I don’t know if phone companies do this much. In my area, if you dial 1+ and then one of the local, toll-free area codes, you get an interrupt message “You do not need to dial a one when calling this number…”, and then you have to hang up and dial the same number again, without the 1+. (I expect we will someday get “For only 25 cents, you can stay on the line and we will connect you automatically…”.)
It’s interesting, in its way, to note that Bell Labs headquarters currently has area code 908, which must’ve been the second-slowest possible one back in the day (though back when it mattered, it had area code 201, the first one assigned).
Just a nitpick, and I certainly have no personal experience with this, but I’m told a 1 was allowed at the end if the middle digit was a 0.
It sounds like you’re talking about a packetswitched network. IME, as a telco employee, phone companies definitely don’t do this much… outgoing trunks from a switch are generally either LD carrier-specific, or they go to a tandem switch and THEN get to an LD carrier-specific trunk.
I could see how a call gets packetswitched once it gets into the backbone (or if it originates as voip), but the local switch, at least in my company, doesn’t just fire-and-forget a call it can’t route locally, it’s got routing tables that tell it exactly where to send a call, either to another switch within our network or onto another carriers trunks. I know this because all hell breaks loose when those routing tables are wrong… 
Hence my question… if there are areas where prefixing a 1 means something other than “toll call follows”, I’d be interested to know where.
edit - requiring the 1+ doesn’t make much sense to me either, since each NPA-NXX is unique, and that tritone “you do not need to dial a one” is annoying. I suspect that the purpose of requiring a one is because its implicit acknowledgment that the call is toll, and there’ll be no more of that nonsense once the network goes digital.