Shortcut dialing of local area code?

[Brian Elfert]

We have had four area codes in our area since 2000. The Minneapolis, MN metro area has the largest toll-free calling area of any metro area for traditional landlines. It is mostly irrelevant now with free long distance and very few people still having a traditional landline.

The ability to dial within the same area code with just seven digits seems to vary based on your phone provider and how you get phone service. My Verizon cell phone can still dial seven digits in the same area code if using LTE or CDMA calling. I have WIFI calling with my Verizon phone at home and for some time I had dial ten digits, but at some point I could dial just seven digits again. I don't call too many people in my own area code so I mostly have to dial ten digits anyhow. All of my phone contacts have an area code included. I find that if I live my local metro area that I have to dial ten digits even to reach numbers in my same area code. It almost seems like the phone is trying to dial the seven digit number in whatever area code I happen to be in.

The advent of free long distance with cell phones (and a lot of landlines now too) has really changed the way people communicate by voice, when people do communicate by voice. I routinely call all over the USA with the my cell phone and don't think anything of it. I believe we still pay long distance on our work phones, but the charges are so low that it isn't a significant expense.

[Lee DeRaud]

You'll likely not need to dial the Country Code (the 1) at some point on any land lines left at some point just as it's not required on cell phones already.

My landline cordless Panasonic will handle 9-digit ("1-less") numbers fine, but I'm not sure if that's a feature of the phone (as in, it's inserting it automatically) or the Spectrum VOIP it runs through.

(Not sure if VOIP qualifies as "landline", but hey, there's wire running under the front yard and the street, so I'm calling it that. )

[Nathan Johnson]

It is truly a massive inconvenience to dial two extra digits, even on a non-rotary phone.
Something must be done!

[Harriet Beauvais]

I'm in the extreme suburbs of Philadelphia and honestly, I cannot remember how long we've been dialing ten digits, I'm willing to say late 90s, though.

Dialing anything more than ten is usually outside of the country, isn't it?

[Jim Koepke]

It is unlikely landline makers are going to be offering "New and Improved" conveniences to a product that is appealing to an ever shrinking market.

Some of us may remember the days in some areas having to only dial the last five digits of a phone number if you were calling someone with the same prefix. Those were the days of KLondike 5 and QUincy 7. This was before push button dialing. Many of the old offices had to be upgraded to handle "Touch Tone" dialing.

In time new numbers became scarce in some area code service areas. The area served by an area code were shrunk with the split off area assigned a new three digit area code. At times areas grew so quickly three digit sequences reserved to be area codes ended up having to be used as phone number prefixes. This is when dialing a 1- became required in some areas. (at least this was my experience in the San Francisco area.)

Upon moving to Washington most of the state had one area code. If a call was being made to a nearby town an area code was required but no 1-. Then we got an overlay area code. For some calls the 1- was required for some it wasn't. This was confusing as all heck. If you dialed the 1- and the call didn't require it you would receive a message telling you it wasn't needed. If you dialed a number without using the 1- and it was needed, you would receive a message telling you it was needed. It must have caused so many complaints that they changed it to everything now uses the 1- when calling. It may actually be not needed on some calls, but it is now used on all my calls just to avoid anguish.

Of course this all depends on the local telephone service provider. One of the areas not far from me is served by an independent telephone company.

By the way, 1-415-555-1212 is eleven digit dialing. Many years ago that was how to contact long distance information for each area code.

Also for those not acquainted with telephone numbers KLondike 5 and QUincy 7 were numbers mostly used by the entertainment industry. If a telephone number was spoken or shown in a program, say something like PEnnsylvania 6-5000, too many bored viewers would call the number just to see who would answer. This is why some prefixes were set aside. There are also three digit combinations that have special purpose use by telephone service providers that are not used as area codes or prefixes.

jtk

jtk

[Lee DeRaud]

Also for those not acquainted with telephone numbers KLondike 5 and QUincy 7 were numbers mostly used by the entertainment industry. If a telephone number was spoken or shown in a program, say something like PEnnsylvania 6-5000, too many bored viewers would call the number just to see who would answer. This is why some prefixes were set aside.

Same thing happens with license plates. I've noticed many California plate numbers in movies and TV shows that are far too old to have ever been assigned to the car in question. (I assume other states do the same thing, but I don't know how to "date" their number patterns.)

[Jim Becker]

I'm in the extreme suburbs of Philadelphia and honestly, I cannot remember how long we've been dialing ten digits, I'm willing to say late 90s, though.

Yes, that was about the time they started the changes I mentioned up above.

[Jim Koepke]

Same thing happens with license plates. I've noticed many California plate numbers in movies and TV shows that are far too old to have ever been assigned to the car in question. (I assume other states do the same thing, but I don't know how to "date" their number patterns.)

Back in the early days of personalized plates a woman who was wanted for being involved with robbing banks was arrested. She was stopped by a patrol officer because of a personalized plate with too many characters. The officer then recognized her as being wanted on bank robbery charges.

jtk

[Myk Rian]

I just got a text from Verizon saying that by 10.27.21, 10 digit numbers are required.

[Brian Elfert]

I just got a text from Verizon saying that by 10.27.21, 10 digit numbers are required.

This is only in certain area codes. The reason for this is because next summer we will be able to dial 988 to connect to the national suicide prevention center. The area codes in question have phone numbers that start with 988.

[Jerome Stanek]

In our area they are just now starting to make 440 area code numbers dial it.

[Jim Koepke]

In our area they are just now starting to make 440 area code numbers dial it.

With an old rotary phone it could be a bit of a pain. With touch tone it is just a few more presses of the buttons.

There are bigger problems with which to be concerned.

jtk

[Curt Harms]

My landline cordless Panasonic will handle 9-digit ("1-less") numbers fine, but I'm not sure if that's a feature of the phone (as in, it's inserting it automatically) or the Spectrum VOIP it runs through.

(Not sure if VOIP qualifies as "landline", but hey, there's wire running under the front yard and the street, so I'm calling it that. )

If it's got a phone line running to the base, it's a land line as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps some peoples' definition of a land line is sometimes referred to as POTS(Plain Old Telephone System) If your landline phone works with no power, it's probably POTS. The one possible advantage I see of POTS over IP based phone setups is 911 response. First because it works with no power and second the 911 system seems geared to match addresses to phone numbers using POTS. We had Vonage for a while and as I recall had to register the phone number to the address for 911 services. We never had to find out if that worked and was reliable thank goodness. How does someone with only a cell phone work 911? SWMBO has significant medical issues so reliable 911 service is at the top of our list.

[Jim Becker]

There was a time when "landline" really was pretty much focused on telephone service to the premise from the local operator ("Bell" company or equivalent) via copper phone lines. It wasn't something "portable". That's blurred a little because over the past x number of years, folks have had the opportunity to use alternative carriers, primarily via IP, to be their "phone company" for phones in their home instead of the old copper service. While IP service is technically portable with an app or IP device, many folks who use these services point them at a specific device in their home that in turn provides what appears to be traditional in-home phone service. Even the local carriers have moved in the IP direction. Verizon, for example, has been abandoning copper lines for some time now in many of their local service areas in favor of fiber optic service to the home, even if it's just for the decreasing number of people subscribing to phone service. Those lines use IP behind the scenes, at least at the central office/wiring center, even if the subscriber insists on "POTS" type regulated service rather than their more feature rich digital voice product. Those are still "land lines" from a functional standpoint.

Where this ties back to things being discussed in this thread is that IP services and wireless phones have pretty much moved the whole phone calls thing to a ten digit world in the larger part of the US and that's going to continue until it's ubiquitous. Overlay area codes and short numbers like the three digit dial code mentioned in the thread that conflict with an existing area code make this a requirement. And folks will get used to it.

[Brian Elfert]

Many of the "landline" services that aren't POTS have a battery so the device works during a power outage. (The major cable TV service in my area has a lot of their stuff backed up with small natural gas generators to work during a power outage.) The problem with the batteries in those devices is they need to be replaced every few years, but the carriers rarely replace them unless a customer asks.

Your cell phone is supposed to send your GPS location to the 911 center when you call 911. Failing that the 911 center is supposed to be able to get your approximate location from your cell carrier, but that location could be a large general area. This doesn't work with WI-FI calling. For WI-FI calling your cell carrier will require you to enter an address for 911 purposes. This will work fine at home, but what about when you connect to a WI-FI network away from home?