Daniel wrote:
James wrote:
Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
Stanimir Stamenkov wrote:
Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:02:23 +0200, /Stanimir Stamenkov/:
Sun, 31 Oct 2010 12:31:37 -0500, /JohnW-Mpls/:
<snip>
In the old days, there was no 'optional' way to dial. Optional became
possible with digital computers on telephone equipment, but mostly
from the user's end. As VOIP and mobile phones have different rules
and adapt to the land line rules at the exchange, the following
examples are land line based:
Some small communities still dial four digits to reach a neighbor
that has the same area code and prefix.
Most local communities use the prefix and number to dial anyone in
their local calling area unless their local calling area includes a
different area code. They do not dial a "1" for local calls.
Outside the local calling area but within the same area code, a "1"
must be dialed before the prefix and number. Do not use the area code
as the call will fail.
Outside the area code and outside the local calling area, a "1", area
code, prefix, and number must be dialed.
The above is why telephone numbers were usually delimited in one form
or another with the numbers in the order in which they must be dialed
(C-AAA-PPP-NNNN).
With all of these variations in how a number must be dialed makes
formatting the telephone number difficult. This is why there are lots
of local variations. Everyone has their own preference, but usually
the numbers are delimited because of the many different requirements
in different locations. No matter what you use as a delimiter, the
format is 'long distance code/country code', 'area code', 'prefix',
and 'number'. 18005551212 (no delimiters is easiest to type in and is
the preferred format for most databases), 1 800 555 1212 (spacebar is
an easy hit on a keyboard), 1-800-555-1212 (minus sign on a number
pad), 1.800.555.1212 (decimal point on a number pad, usually easier
to hit than the minus sign), 1(800)555-1212 (traditional, but more
difficult to type in), and personal variations that may include
almost any characters other than digits as delimiters, usually
non-alphabetic.
Here, in Australia, we used to have a mix of 0a nnn nnnn and 0aa nnn
nnn (a's for area code, n's for numbers), but, in about 2002, the
government agency that handles phone numbers decided to standardise us
all on ten digits, 0a nnnn nnnn.
At the time, it struck me that an eight digit phone number (forget the
area code) gave 100,000,000 possibilities. If we forget the numbers
starting with 0 (which are used for the emergency services) and forget
the numbers starting with 1 (which are used for business freecalls),
that leaves 80,000,000.
At the time, Australia's population was about 20,000,000, so this
meant, without using area codes, every man, woman, child and baby
could have four personal numbers, one for home, one for going to
work/school/nursery, one for at work/school/nursery and yet another
for going home from work/school/nursery.
O.k., so that's a bit ridicules, we could just have had the 20,000,000
mobile numbers and about 5,000,000 home numbers and, still without
using area codes, there would be numbers available to triple the
population.
It still comes down to dialing the numbers in the correct order. That is
why I believe the format in which the number is presented is of little
importance because, once you strip away all the non-dialable characters,
you have a simple string of numbers.
The reason for the formatting differences is because of how those
numbers were processed. In the old mechanical switching offices, a
number dialed was a string of pulses that activated a stepping switch.
The number of digits required to dial a local number in the USA was and
is either four digits for small communities or seven digits for everyone
else. Special services were and are three digits (411, 611, 911). To
reach an operator is one digit for local (0) and two digits for long
distance (00). Dialing "1" would switch you to the telephone central
office that handles 'long distance' calls. There are local variations
for calls to a different area code that are still local, but the massive
infrastructure of the telephone industry is still in place and still
being heavily used despite the trend towards VOIP because everything
seems to have an interface with the land line telephone services
(mobile, cell, internet, satellite, etc).
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