On 06/01/2015 07:48 AM, Robert Green wrote:
These seemed to make it easier to remember phone numbers, and the words
were usually simple words that were easy to remember. The word was
assigned by the phone company. It seems they stopped doing this around
the mid 1960's. I wonder why they stopped?
Anyone know the reason?
Maybe the *******s wanted to charge extra for using a word prefix but the
FCC wouldn't let them?
Probably ran out of 2 letter combos that made sense as part of a larger
word. "KK" or "WX" would be hard to assign. In addition, 3 letters map
into 1 number, adding to the limitation on assignable prefixes like
"Butterfield" or "Teasdale". A while back all area codes had a 0 in the
second slot and all toll-free numbers began with 800. Not anymore. You
also used to be able to connect just dialing the number without any area
code - which was assumed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_A...ze_expansio n
Lays out what happens if we run out of telephone numbers in the XXX-XXX-XXXX
format.
Before anyone has a canary, there are still places that do things
the old way and you can dial a neighbor with only 7 digits.
The UK used to have exchange names -- at least in the London area -- of
which the first *three* letters were dialed.
In our part of the USA, all numbers within our own area code can now be
dialed without the area code, but it was not always that way.
With only 7-digit "subscriber numbers" in a country with the population
of the USA, there is no way of assigning area codes logically -- at
least without dumping the old 0-or-1-in-the-middle ones, and probably
not even then. Australia has 8-digit "subscriber numbers," and the
initial digits of area codes (apart from the leading 0 for in-country
calls) indicate the State (or group of States), plus one specifically
for all cell phones irrespective of location.
With 8-digit "subscriber numbers" the USA could have area codes with the
initial digit denoting the region and further digits indicating the
State or subset of the region or State. Maybe special area codes within
each region for cell phones -- or maybe a set of area codes for cell
phones irrespective of location.
Perce