Fun Phone Facts

Doing a little research into how area codes and phone numbers are assigned, I was reading about the North American Numbering Plan, which is what determines which states and cities and parts of cities get which area codes.

One fun thing I discovered is that we’re likely to be converting to four-digit area codes in the next 10 years as more people need more numbers. It’ll start when 10-digit dialing is made mandatory all over. Then you’ll see a 0 or 1 added to your existing area code.

Won’t that be a treat?

Other things I learned: We all know that 411 is for directory assistance, and that 911 is for emergencies. But the other “11″ numbers also have specific uses (although not every place uses them):

211 - Community information or social services.
311 - City hall or non-emergency police matters.
411 - Local telephone directory service.
511 - Traffic, road, and tourist information.
611 - Telephone line repair service.
711 - Relay service for hearing-impaired or mute customers,
811 - Telephone company services.
911 - Emergency dispatcher for fire, ambulance, police etc.

And more: Like, when area codes were first instituted in 1951 (when everyone had rotary phones), the biggest-population areas had area codes with the smallest number — the easy-to-dial ones. New York was 212, LA was 213, and Chicago was 312.

North and South Carolina got the short straw, with 704 and 803, respectively.

Oh, and if there was a 0 in the middle, the area code was for a state. If there was a 1 in the middle, it was for a city.

Finally, everyone thinks that any 555 number is fake — they use them in movies all the time. In fact, only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are set aside for fiction. You can end up with 555-1234 … and a lot of trouble trying to convince people it’s real.

(The 958 and 959 prefixes — e.g., 718-958-4321– are usually reserved for tests, so you can usually get away with using one of those for a fake number. Ditto for 970.)