Re: numeration system

Marcos said:
> On Thu, Dec 16, 2004 at 11:21:49AM -0500, Ph. D. wrote:
>> I don't think most USAns even know it as a country
>> code. They just know that one dials a 1 to start a
>> non-local call.
>
> That's because it *isn't* a country code; it's the long
> distance access code.
Well, that's what I was trying to say. ;-)


>> True, but there's one more possiblility. Where I live,
>> local numbers with the same area code are dialed with
>> seven digits. Local numbers in a different area code
>> are dialed with ten digits.
>
> I wish that's how we did it here.  I don't know why I have
> to dial the 770 in order to dial a 770 number from my 770
> phone.  It seems like it should just default.  Heck, growing
> up in Warner Robins, Georgia, in the 1970s, all of the phone
> numbers were of the form +1 912 92x-yyyy, and I could get
> any other phone in town just by dialing those last five
> digits.
Yes, that's the way it used to be here. I live in a village
of 2500 people. All the numbers were 517-456-4xxx or
517-456-7xxx. I could call any other number in town by
dialing just the last five digits. But about eight years ago,
they installed a new switch, and now we have to dial all
seven digits.

My area got automatic dialing around 1960. I still remember
when I was five years old being taught to call my grand-
parents by picking up the telephone, waiting to hear a
voice say "Number, please," and then saying "221J".

--Ph. D.

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