Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: tholome@elaine8.stanford.edu (Eric THOLOME) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Correct Way to Write Your Phone Number Message-ID: Date: 26 Feb 91 20:57:00 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Mr. News) Organization: Stanford University - AIR Lines: 50 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 163, Message 1 of 8 Originator: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: hub.eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu In article roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: > [...] A recording of an obviously French voice > gave me another number to call. What's odd (at least to my American > ears) was that the voice gave the new number as something like "area > code 212, telephone number xxx-xxxx", as if the area code was not to > be considered part of the phone number, but something extra, or as PAT > puts it, incidental. > I wonder, was it just a oddity of the person who made the > recording, an artifact of a person speaking English as a non-native > language and struggling with an idiom, or is it just common usage in > France to pronounce phone numbers that way? I don't have a precise answer to that question, but I might have some hints explaning why this occured. Until five years ago, France was devided in about 100 areas. Each had an area code, and everything was working similarly to the US system: the phone numbers where supposed to be written this way (xx) xx xx xx (though the area code was often dropped by non professionals). To phone in the same area, you had to dial only the last six digits. To phone in another area, you had to dial 16, get a tone, and then dial the full phone number. About five years ago, the system was changed, and the notion of area disappeared. Everybody got an eight digit phone number xx xx xx xx, which was, of course, obtained by adding the area code to the old phone number. This is why some people still talk about their phone number the way they used to do it before, that is by mentionning the area code, and then the phone number. To be precise, I should also tell you that it is actually not as simple as I put it: before, some areas like Paris had seven digit phone numbers. Therefore, they decided to add a 4 in front of it to get the new eight digit phone number. The problem was that this was leading to phone numbers starting with 46 for example, which is the area code near Royan (Town on the Atlantic Ocean coast). Therefore, they had to keep a system of areas. France is now devided in two areas: Paris and elsewhere. To phone inside an area, just use the eight digit phone number. To phone from Paris to outside, use 16 xx xx xx xx. To phone from outside to Paris, use 16 1 xx xx xx xx. People in Paris should print their phone number this way: (1) xx xx xx xx. I believe the use of the (1) is not symmetric in order to be able to make the difference when a call is coming from another country. Eric THOLOME tholome@isl.stanford.edu Stanford University