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One reason why that's disappeared: the expansion of toll-free landline calling area. Last I heard, metro Atlanta had the largest toll-free calling area in the U.S. It runs for over 75 miles, north-to-south. I think technically there are still a few exchanges in 919 that are toll calls from a Raleigh landline, but it doesn't make sense to maintain the 1-xxx-xxxx dialing pattern just for those.
Of course, the migration to wireless and VOIP is another reason.
What would have made more sense, I think, than the proliferation of area codes was maintaining the traditional definition of area codes as 201-219, 301-319, etc and biting the bullet to convert to 8-digit local numbers. People in London, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, etc don't seem to have any problem with 8-digit local numbers.
The middle digit could only be a 0 or a 1.
We had already landed on the moon but we were stymied by this limitation for
Two more decades.
Correct, and in the original definition of an exchange, the middle digit had to be 2 or higher. In other words, the electromechanical equipment could immediately distinguish between an area code and an exchange. It used be NPA-NNX in telco-speak (like 919-832) and later became NPA-NXX. Today you can have a telephone number like 299-200-1234 that would have had both an improper NPA and an improper exchange prior to the 1990s.
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Did you know it was more desirable to have a low-number area code than a higher number one? When dialing a phone with a rotary dial, it took much longer to dial a "9" than to dial a "2" for example because you had to go all the way around the dial for a "9." A "2" was much quicker. Supposedly, lower-number area codes were given to denser areas. Hence, NYC was 212, DC was 202, and Philly was 215. The whole state of North Carolina was 704 initially. They didn't get the 919 area code added until several years later. 919 was the longest area code to dial with a rotary phone.
919 was the longest area code to dial with a rotary phone.
I don't know about that. Alaska's area code was 907 - pretty long for the rotary phone. Although, I am sure not many in the lower 48 were calling Alaska. One of the reasons Alaska changed it's time zone - calling the lower 48 was a hassle.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JaPaKoMom
I don't know about that. Alaska's area code was 907 - pretty long for the rotary phone. Although, I am sure not many in the lower 48 were calling Alaska. One of the reasons Alaska changed it's time zone - calling the lower 48 was a hassle.
You're right, 0's were worse to dial than 1's. I guess the 909 area code was the longest one. Not sure who had it - no one initially, anyway, when the first area codes were given out in 1947.
Correct, and in the original definition of an exchange, the middle digit had to be 2 or higher. In other words, the electromechanical equipment could immediately distinguish between an area code and an exchange. It used be NPA-NNX in telco-speak (like 919-832) and later became NPA-NXX. Today you can have a telephone number like 299-200-1234 that would have had both an improper NPA and an improper exchange prior to the 1990s.
Very interesting, I see a lot of phone numbers now with "x00" as the beginning of the exchange. It's so weird to me. Also seeing cell phone numbers that end in "00" which always seems like it should be a commercial number.
Did you know it was more desirable to have a low-number area code than a higher number one? When dialing a phone with a rotary dial, it took much longer to dial a "9" than to dial a "2" for example because you had to go all the way around the dial for a "9." A "2" was much quicker. Supposedly, lower-number area codes were given to denser areas. Hence, NYC was 212, DC was 202, and Philly was 215. The whole state of North Carolina was 704 initially. They didn't get the 919 area code added until several years later. 919 was the longest area code to dial with a rotary phone.
I don't remember a 704 area code on the coast. I would have said at one time the whole state was 919. But I could be wrong.
What would have made more sense, I think, than the proliferation of area codes was maintaining the traditional definition of area codes as 201-219, 301-319, etc and biting the bullet to convert to 8-digit local numbers. People in London, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, etc don't seem to have any problem with 8-digit local numbers.
I completely agree. I was bummed when they had used up all of the X1X/X0X area codes. At first, a 0 could not be the third digit, but that was the first change they made, I think maybe 310 in Los Angeles, which bought some time for a few more (Fun Fact: The very last one in those patterns to get used was 910 in Central NC. It broke off from 919, which confused people terribly (919->910 was barely a change, but there were literally no other choices left because telephone switching systems could still only handle a 1 or 0 as the second digit. People in both area codes got wrong numbers for years).
Fun fact #2: the first code to break the pattern was 562 near Los Angeles.
I mourn them because I actually used to know almost every area code by heart, when most states only had a handful. What's a trivia-hound to do...
Fun fact #3: the original set of area codes was devised in 1947. States with just one code had X0X, states with more than one had X1X. NC was originally all 704; 919 came later, and for decades, these were the only two (704 split off 828; 919 split off 336, 910, and 252--and now the overlay 984). I'm sure everybody knows that the "lowest" area codes, the ones easiest to dial on a rotary phone, were given to what were then the 4 largest cities in the US:
212: NYC
213: Los Angeles
312: Chicago
313: Detroit
EDIT: When I posted this, I didn't see the last few responses mentioning many of these factoids.
As far as I can recall (which is fairly far) it was 919 in eastern and central NC. I do remember when they added 910 and it was confusing. I never heard my folks talk about 704 being the area code for the whole state and they went way back to the party line era and beyond, but I see that 919 was introduced just 7 years after 704 in 1954.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poppydog
As far as I can recall (which is fairly far) it was 919 in eastern and central NC. I do remember when they added 910 and it was confusing. I never heard my folks talk about 704 being the area code for the whole state and they went way back to the party line era and beyond, but I see that 919 was introduced just 7 years after 704 in 1954.
There's a good chance that a lot of rural folks in the eastern part of the state didn't have phones between 1947 and 1954, which is why you probably didn't hear much about the 704 area code.
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