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What's 10 digit dialing? We didn't need this till the yankees moved here Can't we just let them do this in Clayton and Cary? The rest of us know that if you don't tell us your area code then naturally it's 919.
DISCLAIMER: OK, if there is any doubt, this was a joke. I am not from here, I do not have a problem with yankees, and I think it's funny when you all pick on each other about the North/South thingy.
Were you serious about joking?
Oh... Wait... that didn't come out right.
Just be careful if you link it to a Sprint cell phone number - Google Voice sort of takes over and your voice mails go to Google Voice and not your regular Sprint voice mail. I couldn't switch it back myself and had to call Sprint customer service to fix it. Very strange!
Or maybe it's just my crazy relative in a small town in NY who calls "911" by mistake when she's trying to call me (at 919 ...), and the police end up at her door to make sure she's okay.
In the "old days", the larger cities got the "shorter to dial" area codes (using a rotary dial phone). That's why NYC, Chicago, DC, Dallas and others have 212, 214, 312, etc. NC got the second "longest to dial" area code with 919. The only one longer was 909.
Of course, I still think is is weird to see area codes with something other than a zero or one as the second digit.
Or maybe it's just my crazy relative in a small town in NY who calls "911" by mistake when she's trying to call me (at 919 ...), and the police end up at her door to make sure she's okay.
Someone wasn't thinking in picking another area code that starts with a 9. In Atlanta, there is 770, 404, and 678. So you can abbreviate the full number by using a 7 or 4 or 6 such as 6)685-3023. Now you will never be able to do that because you now have two area codes that start with a 9 in the same geographic region.
You clearly didn't live here when 910 split off of 919 This was back when only a 1 or 0 could be the middle digit and 910 was literally the last one left when 919 had to split (at one point 919 was the whole state of NC except for what is now 704 or 828--all of what are now 919, 336, 910, and 252 until the mid 1990s). It was MUCH harder for people to get used to with two digits in a row saying the same, and people I know in 910 still say "nine ten" instead of "nine one oh" to ease confusion with "nine one nine".
Actually, don't most people (not me, but most) just program numbers into their cell phone first and never even think about what digits it is, nowadays? I still prefer landlines when possible and know all of my friends' numbers, but I seem to be a rarity--so many folks couldn't tell you _____'s phone number because it's just programmed in by name.
But as far as "someone wasn't thinking"--if you investigate all of the area code splits all over the country, you'll find many where the new one starts with the same digit as the old one. I don't know what entity controls that, but it happens so fast now, it could well be largely random.
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 03-11-2012 at 05:24 AM..
For everyone complaining in here:
Who cares really what number it is. Just put the damn thing into your phone and be done with it. There's no need to complicate such a simple issue. It's just three numbers.
Or maybe it's just my crazy relative in a small town in NY who calls "911" by mistake when she's trying to call me (at 919 ...), and the police end up at her door to make sure she's okay.
Nope, you're right. Using "1" and "9" as a pre-dial to get to outside numbers are pretty common for businesses everywhere (think hotels) but here it just causes issues when you throw in the area codes.
I know lots of businesses that used to use "1" or a "9" as a pre-dial but have since switched to using something else because of this problem - just too many 9s and 1s all together in varying orders. NCSU actually did this a year or 2 ago, switching from "9" to "7" I think.
It gets worse when people go, "wait, did I just dial 911? or 919? Maybe I'll just hang up and try again..." And we all know what happends when you hang up on 911. If they'd just tell the operator "oops" it wouldn't be a big deal, but EMS does get ticked if you do it too often.
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This was back when only a 1 or 0 could be the middle digit and 910 was literally the last one left when 919 had to split (at one point 919 was the whole state of NC except for what is now 704 or 828--all of what are now 919, 336, 910, and 252 until the mid 1990s). It was MUCH harder for people to get used to with two digits in a row saying the same, and people I know in 910 still say "nine ten" instead of "nine one oh" to ease confusion with "nine one nine".
