Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Area Codes - a few comments Message-ID: Date: 15 May 89 19:18:42 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: John Cowan Organization: ESCC New York City Lines: 23 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 167, message 5 of 7 >[Moderator's Note: Why 411-611-911 are not used as area codes is pretty >obvious, since they equal Information, Repair Bureau, and Emergency in >that order. But why can't numbers like 210-310-311-511 be used? Or numbers >like 410-510-710? They at least resemble area codes and would not be so >confusing to a phone user. PT] Historically, the N10 codes were used by TWX (otherwise Telex II); whether this is still true, I don't know. AT&T set up TWX to compete with Telex, and used a hitherto-empty part of its name space to avoid interference. Later, AT&T had to sell off TWX, but the N10 codes are still treated as sacred. The last time I checked into the matter, which was maybe 15 years ago, my local telco (New Jersey Bell) treated some N10 codes as "invalid exchange" and others as "invalid area code", kind of randomly. [Moderator's Note: But some readers have maintained, very vigorously, that since Western Union central offices are in no way connected with or wired through Bell central offices, their use of those numbers have no longer any bearing on area codes. I put those codes (410-510-610-710-810-910) in the master list of numerical area codes message run several months ago, and finally took them out. What is the definitive answer on this? Will someone from Bellcore or some other authoritative source please reply? PT]