Coming soon: 12-digit dialing

Jeslek

Banned
Well, Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and soon Mexico use a system called the North American Numbering Plan. To call a number within the NANP, you dial country code 1. (yeah, Mexico will soon have country code 1 hehe).

There are currently 12 billion telephone numbers remaining in the NANP. All telephone numbers are in the form of

NPA-NPX-XXXX

where NPA is the area code, NPX is the exchange code, and XXXX is the line number.


With the growth of VoIP and the cellular market, we may hit the limit in 2015 instead of 2030. This has prompted the NANP administration to speed up the technical specifications for expanding the current system.

Right now the idea is to make area codes four digits long. Existing area codes will probably be affixed with a 0. For example, if you are in area code 905 it will become 9050, and area code 416 will become 4160.

A second change will be to make the exchange number also four digits long. Most likely your new exchange code will be prefixed with a number.

So, starting as soon as 2005, you may be dialling say, the Toronto Star's classifieds section:

Original number: 416-777-7777 (yes that is the real number)

New number: 4160-7777-7777 (just an example)



This will make it harder to memorize phone numbers hehe. :cool:
 

Professur

Well-Known Member
The reason phone numbers started as 7 digits, was because it was found that people had too hard a time remembering more digits than that in a single sequence.
 

Jeslek

Banned
Luis G said:
I told you, Canada and US should adopt our dialing system ;)
No. Anarchy.

And Professur has it right... But unfortunately that is no longer going to be the case.
 

Jeslek

Banned
It is bad Luis, which is why Mexico wanted to join the NANP :) And they have, but it will be a few years before they are fully compliant with the system.

And, even with your current system, New York City will still require more than one area code ;) (Currently it has what, 12?)
 

Luis G

<i><b>Problemator</b></i>
Staff member
I don't think New York has more than 98,999,999 lines ;)

And no, they are not joining it because the current system is bad, they just join to it because they are a bunch of "wanna be", like using the telephone system of USA and Canada would make us 1st world.
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
Luis G said:
I don't think New York has more than 98,999,999 lines

15 Million residents in the NYC area alone x home phones + office phones, fax numbers, cell phones, pagers numbers, multi-lines per house, miltiple cell phone users, etc etc. It could be awfully close.
 

tommyj27

Not really Banned
Professur said:
The reason phone numbers started as 7 digits, was because it was found that people had too hard a time remembering more digits than that in a single sequence.
that's what i like about my cell, i only have to remember the last four digits of numbers, unless two instances of the last four digits appear
 

greenfreak

New Member
I don't doubt that there are 98 million phone numbers in New York. It's a pretty big state.

Originally, we had about 4 area codes; 718 & 212 for NYC, 516 for Long Island and 914 for Westchester.

Then they added another area code for the easternmost county on Long Island, 631. Then the advent of fax machines, beepers, cellphones and such neccessitated more area codes and then they added 917... Here's a list of what I found online for NY:

NY NYC - Area 212 EST
NY Syracuse 315 EST
NY NYC - Area 347 EST
NY Long Island 516 EST
NY Albany 518 EST
NY Binghamton 607 EST
NY Suffolk County 631 EST
NY NYC - Area 646 EST
NY Buffalo 716 EST
NY NYC - Area 718 EST
NY West Point 845 EST
NY White Plains 914 EST
NY NYC - Area 917 EST

/edit

Don't forget about pay phones-they need phone numbers too.
 

Jeslek

Banned
Luis, we don't assign city codes, we assign area codes. City codes lead to a big mess as demonstrated in Europe. Area codes make more sense because if you run out of numbers in an area code, you just create an overlay.

Anyways, New York State has the following area codes:

ny.gif


New York City has the following:

nyinset.gif



You are welcome to your opinion, but to state Mexico has a better numbering plan than the NANP is just ignorance. Bell Labs spent a lot of money on this and they came up with a very logical, structured way of putting the phone system together. No other country has really bothered doing it and most of them were/are run by the government (monopolies).
 

Luis G

<i><b>Problemator</b></i>
Staff member
I said it was easier, go and read it again.

Still, i don't like the idea of having to use "area codes" within the same city.
 

Jeslek

Banned
Easier? I don't think so. Very few cities in the United States are so congested as New York City. Overall, I think the NANP provides a much easier system compared to the variable length telephone numbers, area codes, and city codes Mexico is using right now. :)
 

Luis G

<i><b>Problemator</b></i>
Staff member
Ohh, that's why majos cities have a 2 digit "city code" and 8 digits for the number and the rest have 3 and 7. ;)

I find that easier, but whatever, if they are doing it they are doing it.
 

tommyj27

Not really Banned
jerrek said:
Bell Labs spent a lot of money on this and they came up with a very logical, structured way of putting the phone system together.
they spent tons of money developing it, therefore it must be the best.

personally i think the u.s. phone system could have been developed by trained mountain gorillas but that's just me. when they run cat5 or fiber right into my house maybe my attitude will change
 

Professur

Well-Known Member
I hate to tell you this Tommy, but most houses have the equivelant of Cat5 cable but no use for it. Every home has at least one dead pair at the demarc. DSL uses one other pair, but new housing is carrying 3 and 4 pairs to the demarc, and still only running one line. Not to mention that Cat5 has a length limit much under the voice limits.

Fiber is still much to fragile for home installations.
 
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