Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!telecom-request From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Correct Way to Write Your Phone Number Message-ID: Date: 26 Feb 91 07:44:00 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: Gordon Burditt Lines: 22 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 166, Message 3 of 12 > I have always wondered why people write phone numbers with parenthesis > around the area code, as though it were incidental to the entire > number, i.e. (311) 555-2368? Because dialing the area code is often prohibited or optional? > with dashes and no parenthesis -- or dots if you prefer -- in this > format: 311-555-2368, or 311.555.2368. What authority establishes that as the correct way (especially with periods -- I haven't seen that in use at all)? Southwestern Bell phone books would write it as 1 + 311 + 555-2368 . The international version is +1 311 555 2368 . A quick glance at newspaper ads reveals that the convention is that even when area codes 800 and 214 both appear in the same ad, 800 is surrounded by dashes and 214 is surrounded by parenthesis. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon