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From: briang@eng.sun.com (Brian Gordon)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: The Correct Way to Write Your Phone Number
Message-ID: <telecom11.158.2@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 25 Feb 91 19:19:43 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 158, Message 2 of 13


In article <telecom11.155.8@eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Moderator wrote
about the ways people write their phone number, and the area code
being in parenthesis as though it were incidental.

Perhaps it is more than that.  If I dial the ten-digit number of my
second home phone from my first, I get "can not be completed as
dialed" -- the area-code is actually hostile.  In that sense, the
(xxx) reminds callers that it is mandatory in some situations,
optional in others, and hostile in others.  In other words, "remember
to treat these three digits in a special way."


Brian G. Gordon	   briang@Sun.COM (if you trust exotic mailers) 
                   ...!sun!briangordon (if you route it yourself)