When listing telephone numbers in print, why do some cultures represent the separation of phone area codes and prefixes with dashes (1-800-555-5555), while others use periods (1.800.555.5555), and still others use spaces (80 05 55 55 55)? Is one style preferable to another? Are periods becoming the universal standard?
Sean Halloran
Cincinnati, Ohio
shallora@hotmail.com
No. Use them in Britain (and I’m presuming many other places), and you’d be thought to be slightly mad, or very new to the country. As spellings and date formats, among other things, aren’t standardised, I don’t see why there’s any peculiarity in phone numbers being presented differently.
A further point about British formats: parentheses around an area code used to be common, e.g. (01234) 567890, but this is far less often used now non-geographic numbers such as mobiles and fixed-rate lines are widespread.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, shallora, we’re glad to have you with us… and wow! That was fast, I just responded to your email suggesting you post here.
As I mentioned, in France, they use a space and double-digits: 80 05 55 55 55
And, GorillaMan, when the area code was first introduced in the US and for a lonnnnng time after they used parentheses as well: (123) 456-7890 That was partly because if you were calling someone in the same area code, you didn’t need to dial the area code, hence it was optional hence parentheses. Nowadays, you almost always need to dial the area code and so the parenth’s have been dropped.
I thought this thread was going to be about digit groupings rather than group separators.
The groupings tend(ed) to represent telephone network topology.
It seems like periods are gaining popularity due to the similarity to the presentation of IP numbers.
In Poland it goes like this:
(12) 345.67.89
Also, numbers vary worldwide between seven and eleven digits.
There IS a universal standardized format. This PDF http://www.itu.int/rec/dologin_pub.asp?lang=e&id=T-REC-E.123-200102-I!!PDF-E&type=items is the relevant document & this is a layman’s summary E.123 - Wikipedia .
As a practical matter most countries have a traditional format which they use internally & which deviates from the international standard. But as phone systems change over time, more countries’ formats are getting closer to the international standard.
If/When the USA changes from 3-digit area codes & 7-digit numbers to something else, it’s quite likely the official format will follow the international standard.
Seems like they’re gaining popularity in North America, or as a more widespread phenomenon?
I am of the opinion that the use of periods to separate number groupings in the US is a ridiculous affectation, probably initiated by someone who thought it looked more techie because of its resemblance to an IP address. (I am not aware of the actual history behind that format.) For the same reason I think it’s dumb. Why obfuscate on purpose?
You question is “why not a universal format?” and I think the answer is “Because there are so many phone numbers out there the likelihood and the value of agreeing on the fine points of grouping doesn’t outweigh the return on the effort to do it.”
In some ways the major standard is already there:
Use (the English version of) arabic numbers and sequence them with generalized routing numbers down to more specific ones.
It’s kind of amazing that I can ring a phone anywhere in the world if I know the sequence of numbers to get to that phone. What else is more consistent than that (that’s been around as long)?
When Norway had area codes, they were separated by parentheses, so for instance (02) 34 56 78. Now there are no area codes, and everyone must always dial all eight digits. Most of the time landline numbers are written in the form 12 34 56 78, and cell phone numbers as 876 54 321, to indicate which are which. However, as the difference becomes less important (which mostly means calling cell phones is becoming cheaper), people are starting to write cell phone numbers as 87 65 43 21.
As to why some countries use spaces, others periods and still others dashes, well, that’s just the convention each started out with. There’s no compelling reason to switch, and no obvious winner for which is clearest, so inertia keeps all three separate systems alive.
I almost prefer to use periods, not because of ip numbers, but because when using the number pad, there is no parenthesis.
So you use periods instead of parenthesis?
My number pad has the minus key, though, so I generally use that.
555-555-5555
The international standard is “+1 202 555 1212”. The “+” is replaced with your international access code. The number after the “+” is the country code. Spaces can be used to group the digits to match local numbering conventions. There are no dashes or parentheses.
until the digital exchange program was completed here in the 1990s it was normal to quote a number as *e.g.*Hertford 64762 as nearby telephone areas had local codes (often differing depending on which town you were in), shorter than the national code, to call Hertford. These have now disappeared, and the general disappearance of dial phones has made long strings of digits more acceptable.
The numbering plan here has changed several times in recent years with the exploding demand for numbers and the changes have been considerably criticised inside the telco industry for not producing a robust scheme.
How about orally? Do countries that use two digit groupings say the digits separately, in pairs, or the number they make? 12 34 56: Is it “one two three four five six” or “one two (pause) three four (pause) five six” or “twelve thirty four fifty six?” (in the local language, of course)
In the midwestern US, we say all the numbers individually, with pauses for punctuation and an additional pause in the middle of the four digits at the end. Also, zeros are usually said “oh”, but not always: 123-456-7890 would usually be: “one two three (pause) four five six (pause) seven eight (pause) nine oh”.
Not entirely…the code for Hertford is 01992, or 01WWC (look at a mobile keypad), standing for nearby Welwyn Garden City, which is (or was) the location of the exchange. 0161=01M1=Manchester. 01745=01RHL=Rhyl. And so on.
Hmm… but 01992 also covers Waltham Cross, Lea Valley, Nazeing, Theydon Bois and Hoddesdon - which were part of the London Telephone Area, unlike Hertford (and Bayford, North Weald and Epping). 01707 is Welwyn Garden City, and Hatfield, Potters Bar and Cuffley too.
If you go by 1141 codes then some of the London ones can still be puzzled out from the keypad
People started using periods twenty years ago because it was “edgy” or just plain different.
These were often the same people that were making business cards with no upper-case letters at all. Stuff like:
cecil adams
universal know-it-all
[RIGHT]the chicago reader
1234 fake street
chicago il 60606
312.555.1212[/RIGHT]
Which do you write before the number “Ph:” or “Tel:” or something else? 
I haven’t much seen dots (periods) as seperators. It used to be area code in parenthesis, until more international business made it common on business cards to use the international +49- (0)89-123 45 67 format (if dialing from outside the country, the zero of the area code is left off, that’s why it’s in brackets).
Personally, I think dashes make it better to read and spaces are also nice. I dislike the custom of writing a slash / to seperate area code and number, because it’s easy to mistake for a 1 or 7. So for readability and eas of use, I write with a dash and spaces.
However, many computer databases are set to the numbers-only format, which allows neither dashes nor spaces, making the end result hard to read.