# "You must first dial a 1..." or "It is not necessary to dial a 1..." **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2010, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823 "2010-01-21T11:05:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/21 "2010-01-21T21:34:41Z")
Wow, a lot of great answers; thanks. I guess I should have mentioned that I was talking strictly land-lines and that I live in Oregon where you have to dial the area code for all numbers, and that dialing a 1 is for long distance. ---
**Author:** ![OccamsTaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3ec8ea/32.png) [@OccamsTaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OccamsTaser)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/22 "2010-01-21T21:48:09Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Where did you live? By 1970 I was 13 and I’ve never heard of anyplace where you could do that. I lived in Ohio in the early 70’s and we could do this. We had a party line that served four houses, and you had to listen for “your ring” to know that the call was for your house. It was a trip. ---
**Author:** ![OccamsTaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3ec8ea/32.png) [@OccamsTaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OccamsTaser)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/23 "2010-01-21T21:53:26Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > And just to make things interesting, in large cities you’ll often have de facto ten-digit dialing regardless of how many area codes are in your state/province. I’m inside the Beltway, and I have an actual honest-to-Ford DC area code on my phone - but that’s relatively rare. I know very few people in the area, who’re under thirty and have DC area codes - most just use their cell phones, and kept the numbers from their home states. Same situation here in Hotlanta. We have a bunch of area codes, then you have all the transplants who kept their home state phone numbers. You can’t assume where anyone is located by looking at their area code anymore. My home phone and cell both have different area codes, and that sometimes confuses people from less populated areas who haven’t had to deal with this problem of running out of numbers yet. We too have to dial the full 10 digits, no matter if we call next door of to another state. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/24 "2010-01-21T22:18:58Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Where did you live? By 1970 I was 13 and I’ve never heard of anyplace where you could do that. In the 90s the UW-Madison phone system was still set up like that. If you lived in the dorms, you could call another on-campus phone number (26x-xxxx) by just dialing x-xxxx. I think I read recently that they didn’t even bother wiring the newest dorms they built with POTS wiring. /Shaking fist at the kids these days with their iTwitters. ---
**Author:** ![Nunavut\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nunavut\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunavut_Boy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/25 "2010-01-21T23:04:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Where did you live? By 1970 I was 13 and I’ve never heard of anyplace where you could do that. All phone numbers in Iqaluit were the same prefix (979) until the mid '90s (or so I hear). You could dial anyone in town by just dialling the last 4 digits. Now, we also have 975- numbers. People still tell others their phone numbers using just the last 4 digits; if they only give you 4 digits, the 979 is implicit. 975 people give their numbers as “5-1234” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/26 "2010-01-21T23:26:02Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > In the 90s the UW-Madison phone system was still set up like that. If you lived in the dorms, you could call another on-campus phone number (26x-xxxx) by just dialing x-xxxx. It was the same at my school, but isn’t that more like an internal phone system, where you can just dial extensions? Didn’t you have to dial “9” to get an outside line? ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/27 "2010-01-21T23:41:04Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It was the same at my school, but isn’t that more like an internal phone system, where you can just dial extensions? Didn’t you have to dial “9” to get an outside line? I don’t remember doing that to order pizza or call friends who lived off campus, but perhaps it was just like a gigantic PBX… I do remember when dialing long distance we had a choice of prefixes that affected how the call was billed to us…I remember dialing 8+number billed it via the University’s long distance account which was cheaper than the standard long distance service we could set up with AT&T or Sprint or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![meflin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@meflin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meflin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/28 "2010-01-22T00:50:15Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > When I dial a number that requires a 1 in front of it, I’ll get an automated recording telling me which means I have to dial again. > > When I dial a 1 first and it isn’t necessary, I’ll get an automated recording telling me which means that I have to dial again. > > Since the phone company knows that a 1 is or isn’t needed why doesn’t it just add or subtract the 1 and put the call through? There is no regulatory requirement for the 1 for “toll calls” It all comes down to how did the phone company program its switch. Why? Dog knows … phone stuff is full of stupid. I’ve been working on building a switch, so I’ve been looking into just such things. If you do not require a 1 .. and you dont add the 1 .. and you send you call to another phone switch and/or company that requires the 1 .. your call will then fail. This is the 2nd most common case. If you require a 1 and you send the call to another phone switch and/or company that requires there not be a 1 … your call will then fail. This case is not common. The most common case is the phone switch receiving the call doesn’t care 1 or not. The best way to program a phone switch is to just add the one if it wasn’t dialed and it needs to be shipped off to somewhere else. Also program the switch to take incoming calls with or without the 1. Phone company’s change slowly. ☹ And just wait until you find out “international call blocking” doesn’t block calls to Canada, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, ect, ect. Meflin I’ve got to get back to some nice simple Internet Routing 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/29 "2010-01-22T00:53:26Z")
> [@meflin](#): > > And just wait until you find out “international call blocking” doesn’t block calls to Canada, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, ect, ect. Well, no, those countries are all in the North American Numbering Plan. You’d have to block according to area code. It’s really ‘011/01’ call blocking; it blocks calls to numbers outside the NANP. ---
**Author:** ![meflin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@meflin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meflin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/30 "2010-01-22T01:06:32Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Well, no, those countries are all in the North American Numbering Plan. You’d have to block according to area code. It’s really ‘011/01’ call blocking; it blocks calls to numbers outside the NANP. Exactly .. international calling that is still NANP isn’t blocked. For the average consumer “international call blocking” they would expect .. it to be well blocking international calls, but its not. How many people know this who don’t have hands on with phone stuff? Phone stuff is werid for end users. Meflin ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/31 "2010-01-22T01:16:52Z")
How hard would it be to say, “Block all 011 calls, and all calls to \”? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/32 "2010-01-22T01:23:59Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Where did you live? By 1970 I was 13 and I’ve never heard of anyplace where you could do that. Let’s see… I remember when our local exchange went digital and we could no longer dial within-exchange calls with 4 digits only. That would have been… about 1991. (Vermont) ---
**Author:** ![meflin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@meflin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meflin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/33 "2010-01-22T01:28:10Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > How hard would it be to say, “Block all 011 calls, and all calls to \”? Not hard at all, with the equipment I am working with. With say a Nortel/Lucent/ect Class-5 .. I have no real idea. The “hard” work is keeping up on the NANP assignment list of area codes , and they have an email notification list so its not that hard. My Lucent Class-4 .. is dumb as rocks .. so dumb it cant do per-user call blocking of any kind, I’m using other junk for features like this, I can do database loockups for such things. Ye Local ILEC offeres “international call blocking” if you read the online doc’s they only mention Bermuda as an example of this effect of actually being a 011 block. Meflin Nice to see someone who knows what NAMP is! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/34 "2010-01-22T01:30:00Z")
We studied all this when I was in electronics school (early eighties), and I’ve kept up on it a little. Mostly because of all the new area codes. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/35 "2010-01-22T03:08:25Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > I don’t remember doing that to order pizza or call friends who lived off campus, but perhaps it was just like a gigantic PBX… It seems like it would have to be, no? How else would the system distinguish the last five digits of an internal number from the beginning five digits of a 7-digit external number? (in other words, if the number is 332-4567, and you dial 2-4567, how does the system know you’re not really dialling 245-67xx and just waiting to remember those last two digits?) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/36 "2010-01-22T15:37:39Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It seems like it would have to be, no? How else would the system distinguish the last five digits of an internal number from the beginning five digits of a 7-digit external number? (in other words, if the number is 332-4567, and you dial 2-4567, how does the system know you’re not really dialling 245-67xx and just waiting to remember those last two digits?) I believe you can hit number sign (#) after dialling to signal that you’re done, but that may not be supported everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/37 "2010-01-23T04:07:02Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It was the same at my school, but isn’t that more like an internal phone system, where you can just dial extensions? Didn’t you have to dial “9” to get an outside line? The University of Minnesota was (and likely still is) like this. Five-digit dialing on campus, but dial 9 (or was it 8?) for an outside line to call off-campus. My hometown of Manhattan, MT had five-digit dialing within the exchange (284) until at least 1990, which is when my family moved away. When I was a telephone operator, customers would often call with problems getting a certain number through. When they would dial the 1, the voice would say “It is not necessary to dial a 1”, and when they would leave the 1 off, the voice would say, “You must first dial a 1 before calling this number.” Very frustrating, but we were generally able to get the call through for them. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823/38 "2010-01-23T04:26:22Z")
Back when I was a student at UC Berkeley in 1989, I accidentally discovered that the university phone system did not bill you for long-distance if you didn’t dial a ‘1’ before dialing the long-distance number. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-must-first-dial-a-1-or-it-is-not-necessary-to-dial-a-1/525823.md?page=1)