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From: covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert  07-Jul-1990 1858)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Pentagon Moved to Area Code 703
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Date: 7 Jul 90 22:58:06 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 468, Message 2 of 8


  From:  Greg Monti
  Date:  6 July 1990
  Pentagon Moved to Area Code 703

Prefixes of the Pentagon-Department of Defense telephone Rate Area
have been moved from Area Code 202 to Area Code 703.

Up until now, the Pentagon has been one of those rare odd men out in
the North American Numbering Plan.  The Plan, at least for the US,
states that area codes don't cross state lines. The Pentagon, located
on land owned by the Federal Government in Arlington County, Virginia,
got the 202 Area Code, presumably due to it being the only major
Government agency with its headquarters in Virginia at the time Area
Codes were established.  It got 202 like the other agencies.  (Many
more Federal agencies have been located in Northern Virginia since;
they all have 703 numbers.)  Only phones which are extensions of the
Pentagon PBX had 202.  Private, outside lines, pay phones and private
businesses in the Pentagon have 703 numbers.

For local callers, the Pentagon's Area Code has been unimportant due
to the 7-digit dialing used for local calls in the Washington area.
With the advent of 10-digit dialing for local calls across state and
Area Code lines, which becomes mandatory 1 October 1990, confusion
could have reigned if nothing were done.  Would local callers dial 10
digits for local calls which cross *state* boundaries or *area code*
boundaries?  Suppose your local call crossed only one of the two
boundaries?  (From DC to Pentagon, you would cross a state line, but
not an Area Code boundary.  From Virginia, you would cross an Area
Code boundary but not a state line.)  What would be the dialing rule
then?  That confusion has been eliminated.

The following 202 prefixes have been moved to 703: 545(?), 692, 693,
695, 696, 697 and 746.  One old Pentagon prefix, 202-694, could not be
moved because there already is a 703-694 prefix in Stuart, Virginia.
A new Pentagon prefix, 703-602, was opened, presumably to absorb the
users booted off of 694.

Previously, the Pentagon was its own Rate Area for billing purposes.
Now that its Area Code is the same as the surrounding county, it may
be moved into the Alexandria-Arlington Rate Area.  The new 602 prefix
is already listed in the Northern Virginia and DC directories as
Alexandria-Arlington.

To test whether the move was complete, sample Pentagon prefixes were
dialed from both 703 and 202 phones (all local) as both 7 and 10
digits.  As of 30 June 1990, none of the sample Pentagon prefixes
could be reached by dialing 202-NXX-XXXX from Virginia but all of them
could be reached by dialing 703-NXX-XXXX from Washington, DC.  All
could be reached by dialing just seven digits from either place since
that is still allowed until October.

Dialing 703-694 from a DC phone produces an immediate, "you must first
dial a 1" intercept without even waiting for the last four digits.
1-703-694-XXXX would be the correct way to dial Stuart.

Presumably, 202-694 will be closed, if it isn't already, or kept for
some other purpose.


Greg Monti, Arlington, Virginia; work +1 202 822-2633