Re: numeration system

Steg Belsky scripsit:

> >>>Unlike the American system, we don't touch our country code with a
> >>>ten-foot pole, unless you add a number your mobile phone gives you.
In fact, it's just a coincidence that we dial ten-digit numbers with
a 1 in front and that our country code (yes, it's called that) is
also 1.  (A convenient coincidence, to be sure.)

What's annoying is that there is no universal way to dial a number; it
depends on your location.  Here in NYC, where we have six overlapping
area codes, all numbers must be dialed with 1 + ten digits; in other
locations, local numbers get 10 digits and long-distance ones get 1 +
ten digits; in still others (the majority, probably) local numbers get
7 digits and long-distances ones get 1 + ten digits.

It would be much better if 1 + ten digits was guaranteed to work
everywhere, but in many locations calling local numbers this way
will just get you an recorded whine saying "It is not necessary
to dial 1 ..."

> >>Strictly speaking, it isn't our country code, since Canadians use
> >>the same system.  From the US, one needn't dial a country code to
> >>call a Canadian number.
>
> >Really? Why's that? It seems the US would easily need more numbers than
> >Australia, so how come you have to share your numberspace with Canada?
> >(Is there a better term than 'country code'? 'Region code' is ambiguous
> >and could easily mean 'area code' and now I'm out of ideas.)
>
> I'm pretty sure we share it with some Caribbean nations, also.
The 19 countries of the North American Numbering Plan share the country
code 1: they are the United States and its territories, Canada, Bermuda,
Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, the British Virgin
Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada,
Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and
the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks & Caicos.

This system was set up in 1947, so it long predates international
direct dialing, and was simply incorporated into the international
system wholesale.

The nitty-gritty can be found at nanpa.com and at itu.int.

--
A: "Spiro conjectures Ex-Lax."                  John Cowan
Q: "What does Pat Nixon frost her cakes with?"  cowan@ccil.org
  --"Jeopardy" for generative semanticists      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan

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