Nick Demos writes:

> BTW, this 10 digit dialing is a pain in the neck and an
>  imposition by the telcos.  Technology is supposed to make
>  life easier.  The telcos are just too lazy to apply some
>  technology to carve up area code areas into smaller geograhical
>  pieces.

Actually, Nick, it's my understanding that 10 digit dialing (along with all
of the new area codes) is necessary because of the recent rapid consumption
of telephone numbers, due to the rapid growth of multiple line usage on a per
capita basis. I know that we're certainly doing our part. As a five-person
company, we pay for 23 lines, in Las Cruces, Albuqerque, and Phoenix
(counting one cellular number, which has proven so useful that we're
seriously considering getting a second). Of these 23 numbers, we only use six
primarily for voice. It's part of the price for running a business primarily
through telecommuting.

If everyone did this, the population of the United States would statistically
look as if it were four or five times larger than it is.

Area codes and prefixes were assigned originally by population density and
expectation of usage. In the old system, the North American Numbering Plan, a
10-digit number was broken into three parts, the North American Area, the
Central Office Code, and the Station Code. The North American Area (the area
code) always contained a 0 or 1 in the center position, while no prefix (the
Central Office code) did. The final four digits, called the station number,
were generally unrestricted. In this way, an automatic switch could instantly
tell whether or not the intended number to be reached was a 10-digit
long-distance call or a 7-digit local call.

Doing this, however, greatly restricted the total number of phone numbers
available in the U.S. and Canada. All of the old NANP area codes have now
been used up (even after those originally assigned to the northern states of
Mexico were discontinued a few years ago and were reassigned to US
locations). Thus, the NANP has been recently abandoned. Area and prefix codes
can be anything nowadays. The pain associated with this decision is that
everyone has to dial all 10 digits now. There is no longer any easy way for
an automatic switch to determine how many numbers you intend on dialing.
Moreover, a great number of company-owned PBX systems (a few years ago)
couldn't dial the new area codes because they were programmed to distinguish
local vs. long distance phone calls based on the second digit dialed.
Thirdly, there is a non-neglible cost associated with changing area codes to
business. Chicago is perhaps the worst that I know of. We have one customer,
just outside of the city center, that is coming up on their third area code
reassignment in about three or four years. They were traditionally 312. Then
they were changed to 708. Now they'll be 773 (if I remember correctly).

This is a technological inconvenience caused by a technological demand -- and
I suspect that we're all part of the problem (you included, Nick :-).

Wirt Atmar