Re: numeration system

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.  Transposed to the UK, it's the equivalent of 0, not of 44.  The
fact that in the US both numbers happen to be 1 is really coincidental.
It is a convenient coincidence, to be sure, as it means that I can write
my phone number international-style with +1 770 xxx yyyy, instead of
US-formatted as (770) xxx-yyyy, and even ignorant USAnians will dial the
right thing. :)

> 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.

These days, of course, that's not the case.  Warner Robins isn't even in
the 912 area code anymore, but at least it's all one area code and local
numbers are still a seven-digit dialing experience.   But it's now got
all sorts of different exchanges that don't fit 92x or any other
simple pattern.

-Marcos

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