Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: How big can a Local Dialing Area be? Message-ID: Date: 29 Mar 89 18:28:32 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Reply-To: folta@tove.umd.edu.UUCP (Wayne Folta) Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, gs Lines: 15 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 115, message 5 of 8 Since childhood, I have been amazed at the size of our local dialing area. Being in the Washington DC suburbs, I (roughly) calculate that I can make a local call to anywhere in a 500-square-mile area. If you count DC as a state, that includes three states (MD, VA, DC). But is this really a very large area? How large might a local call area be in LA or NY? Are all local dialing areas determined by distance, or might there be an *enormous* exchange out in Montana somewhere that includes thousands of square miles but only a few thousand people? (It would be interesting to hear about maximal sizes in terms of: area, number of people, and number of exchanges.) Wayne Folta (folta@tove.umd.edu 128.8.128.42)