In ,
Mark Lloyd typed:
On Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:29:03 -0400, Tony
wrote:

Jon Danniken wrote:
aemeijers wrote:

And even if the TT pad is disabled, you can still dial
by using the hook lever as a telegraph key....

Used to be able to get the Operator that way, at least.
Now you can't even get the Operator by hitting '0'.

And they call it progress.

Jon

Here is what gets me. It's hard to keep up with what area
codes need to be dialed (ok, toned). If I get a recording
telling me not to use the area code, they could have just
as easily made it ring through either way!

Here, they added a second (overlay) area code. AFAIK no
numbers have been assigned to that code, but we're still
required to dial all 10 digits even to call someone next
door.

BTW, I want to an appliance store recently (an old local
store, not one something like Lowe's) and the (old)
salesman was writing customers phone numbers down with 5
digits (5-digit dialing ended about 20 years ago, when we
got ESS).

5 digits is a shorthand many people use, especially sales/marketing types.
For example, 3 = 393, 4 = 344, 2 = 278, and so on. It works well until you
get overlapping codes ending in the same digit.
Also, many predictive dialers are programmed to work that way; they're
usually called least cost routers. It's just software programmed for a
specific area is all it is. Great for 10 & 11 & 14 digit daling, especially
if auth codes go with it.