Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!lll-winken!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert 03-Oct-1989 1147) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: NPA Splits Before 1965 (from G. Monti) Message-ID: Date: 3 Oct 89 15:46:50 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 101 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 426, message 7 of 8 From: Greg Monti Date: 26 September 1989 Re: Area Code Splits Before 1965 Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) writes: > Here is what > I have regarding splits (I don't know what if anything was done before > July 1965): > 305/904 Florida, July 1965 > 703/804 Virginia, June 1973 > 714/619 California, November 1982 > 713/409 Texas, March 1983 > 213/818 California, January 1984 > 212/718 New York, September 1984 > 303/719 Colorado, 5 Mar. 1988 > 305/407 Florida, 16 Apr. 1988 > 617/508 Massachusetts, 16 July 1988 > 312/708 Illinois, November 1989 > 202 District of Columbia & vicinity, 1 Oct. 1990 > (202 area code is being withdrawn from Md. and Va. suburbs) Actually, the 'split' here is 1 Jan 1990. The end of permissive dialing is 1 Oct 1990. > 214/903 Texas, fall 1990 > 201/908 New Jersey, 1991 > 415/510 California, 7 October 1991 (full cutover 27 January 1992) Some additional splits must have occurred prior to 1965. I thought that, when Area Codes were 'invented' in 1946 (not 'implemented,' just 'invented'), the system was as follows: - States small enough to require only one area code got a zero as the center digit, with the other digits depending on population density or urbanization (higher numbers to more rural states). The most urban, New Jersey, got the lowest number of this series, 201. DC got 202. - States big enough to require more than one area code at the outset got all codes with a 1 as the center digit. The outer digits were assigned in the same general way as described above. New York got 212, the second and third most populous cities got 213 and 312, other big cities got 214, 412, 215, etc. If this is indeed true, then ANY state which currently has more than one area code AND has at least one area code with a 0 as the center digit, must, by definition have been split at some time. Perhaps the split happened only 'on paper' before DDD was widely available. Perhaps it just occurred a long time ago. Here's a list of the affected states which obviously had only one code (with a zero in it, still serving the major city) at one time: Florida 305 (813, 904 and 407 all added later) Louisiana 504 (318 added later) Nebraska 402 (308 added) Washington 206 (509) Oklahoma 405 (918) Kentucky 502 (606) Tennessee 901 (615) Georgia 404 (912) New Jersey 201 (609) North Carolina 704 (919) Virginia 703 (804) Here's a list of states which probably always had more than one code (all of them with a 1 in the middle), which have added codes with zeros in them since: California (added 209, 408, 805, 707) Illinois (added 309) Texas (added 806, 409, soon 903) Minnesota (added 507) Massacusestts (added 508) New York (added 607) Some of these states have also added codes with 1's in them in addition to the zero codes mentioned above. For example, New York has added 718. That doesn't cloud the picture. Additional ammunition: telephone directories in New Jersey have listings in them of every prefix in the state, grouped by area code. (Wish every state did this.) In each list, a mark referring you to a footnote appears next to any central office code which is duplicated in both 201 and 609 areas. Why? Allow me to speculate: Because at one time New Jersey must have had only one area code with no prefix duplications. 609 was added early on with the knowledge that the state would outgrow 201 before DDD was widely implemented. Even though the state now had two area codes, there were still no prefix duplications and it was likely that 7-digit dialing applied statewide. (To my knowledge, New Jersey *never* had 1 + 7 digit dialing for intra-NPA toll calls.) Eventually, as the concept of area codes caught on, New Jerseyites were required to dial 10 digits to reach people in the 'other' area of their state. (This does not apply universally in NJ, however. There is some code conservation with 7 digit calls across the border allowed.) Is there anything wrong with this reasoning or the history about the zero and one codes that makes this wrong? Does anyone remember the above states splitting when they were knee-high to a grasshopper? Greg Monti, Arlington, Virginia; work +1 202 822-2459