As late as 1998, the Houston metropolitan area still allowed 7-digit dialing. The area codes were defined geographically: the area between downtown and the Sam Houston Tollway used the 713 area code; those of us outside it used 281. Then Southwestern Bell decided that 2 area codes were insufficient. A new code called 832 was added. At the same time, the geographic boundary between 713 and 281 was removed. (Anyone in Houston can now be assigned any of the 3 codes.) Ten-digit dialing became mandatory. However, as Houston Chronicle columist Ken Hoffman pointed out, it is unneccessary to remeber all ten digits because of three simple rules. * If 7 is the first digit of a phone number, it is immediately followed by 13. * If 2 is the first digit, it is follwed by 81. * If 8 is the first digit, it is follwed by 32. Therefore, a number like 281-555-4748 is no harder to remember than 2-555-4748. I think that most people there would be unwilling to switch to 8-digit phone numbers, because the numbers would be no easier to remember and, as someone already pointed out, the change would require huge amounts of time and money. Not that it would affect me, because I now live in the 979 area code, which, by the way, recently split off from 409. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos - Share your holiday photos online! http://photos.yahoo.com/
