Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bu.edu!telecom-request From: covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Correct Way to Write Your Phone Number Message-ID: Date: 9 Mar 91 08:14:40 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 47 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 189, Message 4 of 9 [From Greg Monti at NPR, forwarded to the Digest by John Covert.] While the CCITT recommendations -- and comments of telecomers -- on this subject were of interest, I've noticed that there *is* an apparent US or NANP standard: US domestic local and long distance phone companies all seem to write phone numbers identically to each other. Just look in any phone directory (both the info pages at the front and the main directory listings) or at the itemized calls on any long distance bill. NANP 10-digit phone numbers are always listed the same way: 202 822-2633 A space after the area code, a hyphen between prefix and suffix. No parenthesis. The space separates; the hyphen unifies by joining the 7 digits into a block of printed text. I follow this "standard of the NANP telcos". Interestingly enough, this convention is REVERSED in the United Kingdom: 071-402 7633 [A hotel I once stayed at in the Bayswater district, please don't call them unless you want to do business with them.] The thought there, perhaps, is that the hyphen acts as a separator. I agree with the Moderator that people are, shall we say, less than complete when they don't include area codes with the seven digit numbers. I'm glad that Washington DC area business are now forced by marketplace reality to reveal their area codes. The philosophical question is: are you telling someone "what buttons to press to reach you" (which could be seven, eight, ten or eleven digits -- which version should you print?) or "what your phone number is" (always ten digits). I vote for the latter. It provides full information; the user can figure out how to dial it. Greg Monti, National Public Radio, Washington, DC +1 202 822-2633 Fax +1 202 822-2699 [Moderator's Note: I would guess your phone number is not always ten digits; it is always eleven digits if you include the country code. And if you don't include the country code, then why bother to include the area code, etc ... or where do you draw the line? PAT]