Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: 0002909785@mcimail.com (J. Stephen Reed) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Why Were Area Codes Scattered Around in Assignment? Message-ID: <11919@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 9 Sep 90 01:59:00 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 33 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 632, Message 4 of 12 Many recent messages expressed puzzlement at the North American Numbering Plan being so unsystematic about "scattering" the area codes all over this continent without any visible rules behind it. When I was a compulsive 12-year-old and had alphabetized my mother's phone listings (I was tired of 50 cardboard markers in the phone book), I noticed the same thing, matched this up in my head with ZIP codes going from east to west ... I really was a compulsive kid ... and asked the same thing. She got hold of an cousin who had worked at Northwestern Bell. What I was told then was that it related to the clicks of the rotary phone dial. New York City (212), Chicago (312), and Los Angeles (213) were the biggest cities and called the most, and to have only a few clicks saved time for the long distance operators. Someplace like North Dakota would have 701 because it was out of the way and got few calls. Someplace like Newfoundland would get 709 because it was out of the way. This always made sense to me. When I became more libertarian in my thinking, with a healthy disdain for that region Inside the Beltway, it always made me happy that 202-land was ... once ... considered 'way out on the fringe of America. It still is! That same cousin was the one who taught us kids to use "11916" to ring another extension in our house, causing no end of fiendish delight to us and no end of frustration to my folks. Steve Reed Liberty Network, Ltd. * P.O. Box 11296 * Chicago, IL 60611 0002909785@mcimail.com