Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!rutgers!texbell!attctc!vector!telecom-gateway From: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Local Inter-NPA Calls and Number Conservation Message-ID: Date: 15 Nov 89 03:00:29 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Lines: 36 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 511, message 9 of 9 In article cmoore@brl.mil writes: >However, recent notes in Telecom Digest say that the area code is >required for local calls FROM 201 TO other area codes, to help with >code conservation while awaiting the 201/908 split. The example you >sent (from Barnegat to Toms River) was FROM 609 TO 201. Nope, you never need an area code to make a local call in NJ. NJ Bell seems to feel very strongly like that. I grew up in Princeton, which is just south of the 609/201 split and is a local call to and from several exchanges in 201. In olden days Princeton had two prefixes, 921 and 924. (In the 1950s they had four-digit phone numbers and when they went to seven digits they assigned 0000-4999 to WA-4 and 5000-9999 to WA-1.) Then when Princeton University became dialable they assigned it 452. Then when they made student rooms dialable they added 734. Then 683, and now with a zillion new office parks near Princeton all with dialable prefixes they've added about six more prefixes none anything like any of the other prefixes. 609 is actually a very small NPA so they could have assigned 922, 923, 925, and 926 but they didn't. It took me a while to realize that the prefixes they used were some of the few remaining unused in 201, so they could keep seven-digit local dialing. I bet when they split 201/908 you'll be able to dial across that boundary with seven digits, too. Here in Massachusetts, though, if you live in Lexington and want to make a free local call to neighboring Concord you dial 1+508+NXX-XXXX. I suppose it'd have come to that sooner or later anyway, but it's interesting to see the differences among the former BOCs. John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl "Now, we are all jelly doughnuts."