Even for local calls?
The “1” tells the phone computer two things:[ol][li]You will be supplying 10 digits afterwards, and[]You are making a phone call without operator assistance.[/ol] Using a “0” means:[ol][]You will be supplying 10 digits afterwards, and[*]You need operator assistance (could be an automated operator), like for collect calls.[/ol][/li]If we eliminated the “1” and required 10 digits for ALL calls, that would work except you couldn’t make collect or operator-assisted calls (by dialing the number first).
So the only way we can eliminate the “1” is to eliminate collect and op-assisted calls. Could happen. We already can’t make third-party billed calls.
Also, as 10 digit dialing becomes more widespread, eventually all areas will be uniform. Then we could eliminate the “1” after a permissive transitional period.
Except 10 digits won’t be enough to handle all the phone numbers needed if the current trends continue. So the entire numbering system may have to be seriously revamped (12 digits, anyone?).
AFAIK, There is no local calls outside your area code here. There are also no true long distance inside your area code – what you get is two slightly different local rates depending on distance but it doesn’t kick in into interlata long distance until you dial outside your area code.
It’s hard to see that happening for a very long time. If it really became a “flat” system where the numbers don’t mean anything then 10 digits gives us 10 billion numbers doesn’t it? 0 to 9,999,999,999. That’s about 30 phones for every person in the USA. These are not like IP numbers. Your toaster probably won’t need a phone number. You’d have to use a leading zero if you really want the first billion.
And 640K is enough RAM for anybody, and the world only needs a few computers, too! Who wudda thunk we’d have more than one computer per person (I must have a few dozen in my house, counting gadgets that include a “computer”) or more than one phone per person (I have about 4 phone numbers myself right now – office, home, fax, mobile)?
I concede that some scheme may come about that reduces the number of numbers used per person, but my statement was if current trends continue…
408 is San Jose, and 415 is San Francisco, right? Don’t they meet somewhere on the peninsula? What happens there–do you have 7-digit cross-border dialling arrangements?
Well, yes, I could… buy dialling 0.
You yourself say that the purpose of dialling 1 is to tell the system I DON’T need an operator. Eliminating that requirement doesn’t prevent me from getting operator assistance by dialling 0.
You’re contradicting yourself; you said collect calls require dialling 0, not 1. Why not make all dialling 10-digit, and just reserve the 0 for operator assistance? If I start with any number other than zero, the system knows I’m going to input ten numbers, and hooks me up to that phone. If I start with zero, the system knows I need an operator.
Local calls are ub the 408 area code
No you use the 650 area code. If you dial a 7 digit number in SJ it will either give you a number in SJ or the call will kick the automatic sorry message.
Actually, as has been said, the 650 area code is between them.
But your real question is what if someone on one side of the 408-650 area code boundary wants to call someone on the other side. The answer is, the 408 guy has to dial 1-650-XXX-XXXX, just like for any other long distance call. However, the number may still be in his free calling area.
I am in the 510 area code. (That’s the East Bay). The telephone book lists all three-digit prefixes that are in my free local area. Some are also in the 510 area code, but others are in 650 or 408. Numbers in 510 I can reach with 7-digit dialing. Numbers in other area codes I need to dial 11 digits (including the “1”), even though they may still be free calls.
Ed
Okay, that makes sense. I wasn’t sure whether you had the same arrangement as we used to have. Exchange codes were arranged on either side of the area-code boundary so that if exchange code 555 was local to one side of the area-code boundary, exchange code 555 on the other side was long-distance to the boundary, and couldn’t be dialed with seven digits from the boundary area. That way
you could still dial seven digits across the boundary for local calls, without adding the area code.
The way the system is currently set up (and I could be wrong, as I haven’t made a collect or out of country call for many years) is you can dial “0” then wait for several seconds. If the system detects no additional numbers, you are connected directly to the operator for manual assistance.
But if you dial “0” followed closely in time by additional digits, the system accepts as much data as can be transmitted by numbers, then, if need be, either contacts an operator to break in for more data or a “pseudo-operator” which prompts you to supply more data relating to a collect call (speak your name which will be relayed to the receiving party to see if they will accept charges, for example).
If both zero and one are reserved numbers, this eliminates ALL possible digit combinations that begin with zero or one. The only possible numbers would have to begin with 2…9. To elaborate:
Let’s propose (as I think you are doing) that all phone numbers have 10 digits, and to make a phone call, you dial exactly 10 digits, no more, no less.
EXCEPT…if you wish to make a special or collect call, you dial zero followed by 10 digits. This means that no 10 digit number could begin with zero, because if it did, the system wouldn’t know if your initial zero was a signal for a special call or part of a 10 digit number.
So 1/10 of the possible 10 digit numbers (100,000,000 out of one billion) would not be available for assignment. If both zero and one are reserved for a special purpose, 2/10 of the possible one billion numbers would not be available.
In contrast, let’s look at a theoretical system where collect or operator assisted calls did not exist, and all phone number assignments are for 10 digits. Then it would be possible for all one billion possible numbers to be used, as a first digit of zero or one would be equal to a first digit of 2…9, i.e., no special significance. In this system, all phone calls are made with exactly 10 digits; no more, no less; and the prefixed “1” as we know it today would no longer be required.
Yes. But under the current system they aren’t available anyway. No area codes start with 0 or 1.
So you could just go to ten digit dialling today, reserve 0 for operator assistance, and 1 for international calling, and you’d have a simpler system and be no further behind in available phone numbers.
Exactly my point; you might want to read my post again more carefully.
No area codes used to have other than 1 or 0 for the middle digit, either. Then the rules changed to allow for more numbers, which required the “1” prefix. The rules could be changed again, and for the same reason.
If you take 0 and 1 away from the first digit of area codes and prefexs then there are 6.4 B numbers.
Now remove 911, 611,&311 from prefexes and area codes and 555 as a prefex. Now we are down to 5,544,000,000 numbers.
[hijack] In my home town, we used to have four digit phone numbers. My brother called home when he was in the Navy and the operator couldn’t believe our number was (Area Code) + 4 digits. Later, when we graduated to 7 digits, we could skip the middle number of the prefix and dial just six…134567. If the last digit of the prefix was the same as the following digit, we could just dial the last four…instead of 1233456, we’d dial 3456.
There’s a [del]small[/del] tiny town near where I grew up, and we had a wedding reception there once. There was an old clock, a promotional item from the local Chevy dealer, in the basement. “Dial 7.” :eek:
About 20 years ago, to call another town that was in the area code but which was long distance, it was 1-number (no area code).[/hijack]
Certain area codes around here are local. For awhile, others seemed to be variable. They could be long-distance or not; it seemed to depend on the rest of the number…I thought maybe they determined it with the prefix.
ETA @ Snnipe: 211 is the number for emergency social services around here, e.g. to help you find a place to stay if your house just burned down or connect you to other entities like help paying your electric bill…true across the US? I don’t know.
Going back to old times.
When I was a kid our number was 23F11. It stood for the 23rd farmers line 11th phone.
I remember when we got pack bell. It was a five digit number. three years latter they add the other digits.
If you’re dialling ten digits all the time, you can have exchange codes (“prefixes”) starting with 0 or 1 as well.
then how will you get an operator when necessary. Also phone companies do not use the 0 or 1 in prefexes.
My question is why would you NOT want to know the number you are calling is long distance versus local??? If a call is long distance I’d rather know so if I don’t want to pay for the call I don’t have to…or I can make an intelligent decision not to talk for an hour. I know a lot of people have unlimited long distance now, but I find it odd you would be bothered by the phone company to letting you know the number you are calling is not local. Not everything in 905/289 is a local call. AND I think its crap that big states like New York, California and Illinois actually allow the phone companies to get away with this. Can you imagine they actually expect you to look on their website to find out if a number is local or not when they could easily program it in their switch? :dubious: