Jim writes:
> What do you think of these two options?

Personally I think overlays are much better, though most people hate
them because they don't want to be forced to dial 10 digits all the
time.

But if you keep splitting, eventually you'll have to dial all ten
digits almost all the time anyway as "areas" get smaller and smaller.

And eventually you'll be on the "wrong" side of a split and all your
phone numbers will change, which means new stationary, sending everyone
change of address notifications etc., and there's no guarantee that
this won't happen again a year or two later.

Once your area makes the transition from splits to overlays, then you
will probably get to keep your current phone numbers forever (or at
least until we need more than 10 digits, but even then they'll probably
extend the area code somehow and most of your number will remain the
same).

The world (well, the US in this case) is moving towards 10 digit phone
numbers.  Splits just put off the inevitable, while overlays eliminate
the worry about future changes.

Here in the Bay Area(tm), we already have so many area codes that even
local area calls are to a different area code the majority of the time,
so having to dial the area code for same-area code numbers is already
simpler.  You drive for a few minutes in any direction and you're into
a new area code, where knowing 7 digit numbers won't do you any good
if you need to make a call from there, so you might as well think of
the area code as just part of the number.

I've long since given up thinking of the area code as a different part
of the phone number.  You can't even tell what *time zone* a number is
in any more from the area code since there are so many of them and new
ones show up so often.

G.