Area Codes - a question...

New York City's area code is 212.

Downtown Los Angeles' area code is 213.


Notice that these cities are across the country from one another. Why are the area code numbers consecutive?

from wiki...

Area codes were initially assigned based on the volume of telephone calls made in each area. The most populous areas were assigned the area codes that required the least time for dialing. A subscriber line as well as switch banks had to be allocated for the entire time from begin of dialing to the end of a call. The time to dial a digit was directly proportional to the digit, with the exception of the 0, which required 10 pulses or 1 second. The densely populated areas of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Detroit had large incoming call volume and were assigned the area codes (212, 312, 213, and 313, respectively. As an exception, the first area code installed was 201 for New Jersey. The sparsely populated area of rural Texas received area code 915. This numbering strategy became unnecessary when Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling was used in Touch-Tone® telephones starting in 1963, in which all digits could be generated in the same amount of time.

Bob, you didn't mention the main reason it took a shorter time to dial. In the days of the old ROTARY phones, area codes with ones, twos and threes took less personal time to dial and less equipment time waiting for you to complete your call. It was simply the most efficient way to divvy up the area codes.

Eric wrote:

Bob, you didn't mention the main reason it took a shorter time to dial. In the days of the old ROTARY phones, area codes with ones, twos and threes took less personal time to dial and less equipment time waiting for you to complete your call. It was simply the most efficient way to divvy up the area codes.

Actually that text was copied from wiki. But I think it's pointing to the same thing isn't it?

But I already see something about it that doesn't add up. I would have thought that North Florida, which included the populations of Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Pensacola, would not have been one of the least populated areas when compared to all the really rural parts of the U.S. However, they gave us an area code with both a '9' and a '0' in it (904). So we must have been one of those exceptions to the rule.

I remember when telephone exchanges were so small that all that was required to dial a number was the last 5 digits of the number. For example if the phone number was 466-2106. you would need to only dial 6-2106 to reach your party.

Speaking of party, does anyone remember having party lines where 2 or more households shared a phone line?

When I lived on Innerarity Point, you used to be able to just dial the last four digits... Everything out that way started with 492.

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Bob, you are correct, but didn't mention the old rotary-dial phones.

We had a party line wayyyy back in the middle 50's and 1 woman was on the dang phone 18-20 hrs a day..... GRRRRRRRRRRRR

Jake92 wrote:

We had a party line wayyyy back in the middle 50's and 1 woman was on the dang phone 18-20 hrs a day..... GRRRRRRRRRRRR

We also were on a party line when I was small. Each line had a distinctive ring and as a small child I was not able to distinguish between the rings and I would inevitably answer the other party's ring every time. I cannot count how many times I was scolded for that. It took me quite a while to learn my lesson.

I had not known how it worked before, but it makes sense now that I read it... My siblings and cousins who live in the boonies all have area codes beginning in nine.

riceme wrote:

I had not known how it worked before, but it makes sense now that I read it... My siblings and cousins who live in the boonies all have area codes beginning in nine.

Now you can tell something about a place just by looking at the area code...

Eric wrote:

riceme wrote:

I had not known how it worked before, but it makes sense now that I read it... My siblings and cousins who live in the boonies all have area codes beginning in nine.

Now you can tell something about a place just by looking at the area code...

I knows it! Ain't that a cool thang?? Thanks, Bobby Baby!