Anyone been through an telephone area code change?
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We had one in the Pittsburgh (412) area a few years ago. Dialing is now 10 digits for even the local area code. I believe everyone inside Allegheny county (Pittsburgh is entirely inside this county) got to keep their #s but everyone outside was forced to the new 724. I believe what is considered local is still determined by distance but I can be wrong as I have not had an account with the local phone company in years.
John
The 412/724 split wasn't directly on the county line. Doing it that way would've made sense so naturally the phone company used a different criteria. My parents are right on the 412/724 divide and distance is still the determining factor in local/long distance calling.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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We recently went through an area code overlay. Basically a second area code was added to an existing area code. Everyone keeps their old area code but new numbers get the new area code - thus everyone is required to dial 11 numbers on every call. 1-(xxx)-xxx-xxxx
Mike Mullikin wrote:
Everyone keeps their old area code but new numbers get the new area code - thus everyone is required to dial 11 numbers on every call. 1-(xxx)-xxx-xxxx
that's fascinating in a grotesquely insane way. When greater Pittsburgh first split 412 into two area codes and then overlaid a new area code on top of the existing 412/724 zone, calling between all 3 remained 10 digits, the 1 was only needed to access an area code outside of those three.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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Just curious because one is coming up for my state, the first one for the state. My wife and I are now living in one city our cell phones come from other cities, hers and mine from different sides of the split. I am just curious what this does to cellphones which are "less" associated with actual location and more with where you happened to be at that time in life when you started the account. Obviously our home phone goes with the side of the split. Just wondering how NM will handle this, other states have been through many of these and we're just finally getting big enough... ;) I guess this is NM teething pains... ;)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
We have been through couple of area code changes. First we went through a split area code. In this scheme an area is split with portion staying with the old and portion assigned new area codes (508 / 978). In less than a year, that was not enough we went through another area code introduction. This time instead of split we went through merged (or whatever it is called) area codes. In this scheme 1+ area code co-exist in the same area. I could be on one area code and my next door neighbor on different area code. This means calling the next door neighbor we will need to dial area code first. Calling on the same area code we don't have to enter the area code first, but it also works even if we enter an area code. Heck! we always use area code even to call people on the same area code. Painful :(( but we got used to it with time....
/* I can C */ // or !C Yusuf
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The 412/724 split wasn't directly on the county line. Doing it that way would've made sense so naturally the phone company used a different criteria. My parents are right on the 412/724 divide and distance is still the determining factor in local/long distance calling.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
Thanks for the correction. I remember all the discussion/fight but since I am in Pittsburgh and did not have a number change I did not remember the exact details...
John
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Just curious because one is coming up for my state, the first one for the state. My wife and I are now living in one city our cell phones come from other cities, hers and mine from different sides of the split. I am just curious what this does to cellphones which are "less" associated with actual location and more with where you happened to be at that time in life when you started the account. Obviously our home phone goes with the side of the split. Just wondering how NM will handle this, other states have been through many of these and we're just finally getting big enough... ;) I guess this is NM teething pains... ;)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
I live in South Dakota and am 1 mile from Iowa (another area code) and 2 from Nebraska (still another area code). When someone calls me they use the SD area code, but when I call in for phone service I have to reference the Iowa area code. Thankfully they are all treated locally. If I don't dial the area code for a 'local' Iowa/Nebraska number it rings but it never goes through. Not sure where it's actually ringing.
_____________________________________________ Flea Market! It's just like...it's just like...A MINI-MALL!
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Yes. My parents cellphone family plan didn't change area codes and currently has numbers in two different area codes. My dads number (the only one active at the time of the split) is still in the old one, my moms and my siblings numbers are in the new one.
El Corazon wrote:
Just wondering how NM will handle this, other states have been through many of these and we're just finally getting big enough... I guess this is NM teething pains...
you've got so much fun to look forward to. The next step after it turns out that the split ended up running out of new numbers far sooner than it was supposed to is to overlay a new area code on top of the old one and require 10 digit dialing everywhere. X|
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
Gagh! Sounds like what they did in Washington State. For the longest time, we had two area codes - 206 (Western half) and 509 (Eastern half). Then 206 ran out of numbers, so they split the area code. We now had 360 and 206 on the west side. Ran out again in only a couple of years. Now we have 206 (King County), 253 (Pierce County), 425 (Snohomish County), 360 (rest of the west) and still only 509 on the east. I think I may still be leaving out one or two... Flynn
If we can't corrupt the youth of today,
the adults of tomorrow will be no fun... -
Just curious because one is coming up for my state, the first one for the state. My wife and I are now living in one city our cell phones come from other cities, hers and mine from different sides of the split. I am just curious what this does to cellphones which are "less" associated with actual location and more with where you happened to be at that time in life when you started the account. Obviously our home phone goes with the side of the split. Just wondering how NM will handle this, other states have been through many of these and we're just finally getting big enough... ;) I guess this is NM teething pains... ;)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
I've been through two. The biggest annoyance I remember was not the area code switch itself, but the additional switch to 10-digit dialing. They avoid overlapping 7-digit numbers (no wrong nubmers because of a different area code) for a while so you get used to dialing the area code.
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Just curious because one is coming up for my state, the first one for the state. My wife and I are now living in one city our cell phones come from other cities, hers and mine from different sides of the split. I am just curious what this does to cellphones which are "less" associated with actual location and more with where you happened to be at that time in life when you started the account. Obviously our home phone goes with the side of the split. Just wondering how NM will handle this, other states have been through many of these and we're just finally getting big enough... ;) I guess this is NM teething pains... ;)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
El Corazon wrote:
Just curious because one is coming up for my state, the first one for the state
Area codes in the UK get changed all the time becuase of increased telecoms usage. I remember the first time they did that when London changed from 01 to 071 and 081. They have adverts on TV right across the UK telling people of the split. The advert had two women who wanted to appear better than each other. One says to the other "I'm just calling you on your new outer-London number from my new Central London number". Later the other one phones back to try out the number change and says "I'm just calling from my new Greater London number to your inner-London number". Then a few years later they added a 1 on the front of everyone's dialing code to make new numbers. So Edinburgh went from 031 to 0131 and some cities got all new numbers. This also meant they could section off certain numbers for certain types of service. 07 for mobile numbers, 08 for non-geographic numbers, 09 for premium rate. The idea being that you should broadly be able to tell what you are phoning by the first few digits. It doesn't always work. Then a while later London was renumbered from 0171 and 0181 to 0207 and 0208. From what I understand the dialing code for London is supposed to be 020 and they'll just add 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 9 as they need them. In fact, I don't remember the last reorganisation because it became so frequent no one cared any more.
-- Always write code as if the maintenance programmer were an axe murderer who knows where you live. Upcoming FREE developer events: * Glasgow: Agile in the Enterprise Vs. ISVs, Mock Objects, SQL Server CLR Integration, Reporting Services, db4o ... * Reading: SQL Bits My website
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El Corazon wrote:
Just curious because one is coming up for my state, the first one for the state
Area codes in the UK get changed all the time becuase of increased telecoms usage. I remember the first time they did that when London changed from 01 to 071 and 081. They have adverts on TV right across the UK telling people of the split. The advert had two women who wanted to appear better than each other. One says to the other "I'm just calling you on your new outer-London number from my new Central London number". Later the other one phones back to try out the number change and says "I'm just calling from my new Greater London number to your inner-London number". Then a few years later they added a 1 on the front of everyone's dialing code to make new numbers. So Edinburgh went from 031 to 0131 and some cities got all new numbers. This also meant they could section off certain numbers for certain types of service. 07 for mobile numbers, 08 for non-geographic numbers, 09 for premium rate. The idea being that you should broadly be able to tell what you are phoning by the first few digits. It doesn't always work. Then a while later London was renumbered from 0171 and 0181 to 0207 and 0208. From what I understand the dialing code for London is supposed to be 020 and they'll just add 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 9 as they need them. In fact, I don't remember the last reorganisation because it became so frequent no one cared any more.
-- Always write code as if the maintenance programmer were an axe murderer who knows where you live. Upcoming FREE developer events: * Glasgow: Agile in the Enterprise Vs. ISVs, Mock Objects, SQL Server CLR Integration, Reporting Services, db4o ... * Reading: SQL Bits My website
And we're the dialling code that fell through the cracks. In the whole PhONEday thing where they added the 1 to all the dialling codes, and in the process changed a number of towns/cities to 011x codes, Reading got changed from 0734 to 01734 as per the national scheme. Not a year later, it got changed again from 01734 to 0118, with all existing local numbers being prefixed with a 9. Somehow they'd failed to predict the demand for new numbers in this area and had thought the original plan would be sufficient, then rapidly discovered it wouldn't. Because this second change happened so soon afterwards, and was only a single code-change on that day, the advertising budget was tiny. People didn't get that the 9 was a prefix to the local number, not part of the new dialling code. As a result you still see new businesses advertising their numbers as 01189 xxx xxx. This is despite, for example, the local council having 0118 3xx xxxx numbers. The distinction between whether a digit is part of the local number or part of the trunk-dialling code is not interesting to most people any more, since most people just use their mobiles, which require all digits to be dialled anyway. It's not clear which part of a mobile number is considered 'trunk' and which 'local' - BT use the pattern 07x xxxx xxxx in their billing information, but I don't know if I could dial another mobile in the 077 range from mine just by dialling the last 8 digits. Probably not. It has not made a difference to billing whether you dial all the digits or only the local number for a long time either. It only wastes a little time punching the four or five redundant keys.
Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder
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And we're the dialling code that fell through the cracks. In the whole PhONEday thing where they added the 1 to all the dialling codes, and in the process changed a number of towns/cities to 011x codes, Reading got changed from 0734 to 01734 as per the national scheme. Not a year later, it got changed again from 01734 to 0118, with all existing local numbers being prefixed with a 9. Somehow they'd failed to predict the demand for new numbers in this area and had thought the original plan would be sufficient, then rapidly discovered it wouldn't. Because this second change happened so soon afterwards, and was only a single code-change on that day, the advertising budget was tiny. People didn't get that the 9 was a prefix to the local number, not part of the new dialling code. As a result you still see new businesses advertising their numbers as 01189 xxx xxx. This is despite, for example, the local council having 0118 3xx xxxx numbers. The distinction between whether a digit is part of the local number or part of the trunk-dialling code is not interesting to most people any more, since most people just use their mobiles, which require all digits to be dialled anyway. It's not clear which part of a mobile number is considered 'trunk' and which 'local' - BT use the pattern 07x xxxx xxxx in their billing information, but I don't know if I could dial another mobile in the 077 range from mine just by dialling the last 8 digits. Probably not. It has not made a difference to billing whether you dial all the digits or only the local number for a long time either. It only wastes a little time punching the four or five redundant keys.
Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder
The reason that Reading had to change from 0734 to 01734 was to free up the 07x range for Mobile Numbers. It sure seemed a pain that it changed again so soon after though. The same problem happened in London with their code changing from 071/081 to 0171/0181 and then to 020 very soon after. Again, the first step was a part of the plan to free up 07x for Mobile Numbers, and 08x for Special Numbers.