1 Oct
2006
1 Oct
'06
5:14 p.m.
On 10/1/2006 at 7:44 PM Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
Isn't there 971 in there somewhere?
Yes, but it doesn't cover any new territory. 971 is basically a "new
number" overlay code for the 503 area. I wish the telco powers that be
would have thought of that scheme when 541 was broken out of the 503 (used
to be the entire state) back in the 90's. It would have saved a bunch of
printing and mailing costs. Salem (seat of the state government)
northwards to the Portland Metro area were the only places to hang onto
503.
For a long time, a store in Montreal was getting a bunch of our calls
because many PBX's wouldn't handle area codes that didn't have 1 or 0 as
the middle digit. So, folks just figured that 541 was an error and that
the correct code had to be 514.
It's very strange to think of "area codes" in terms of today's
technology.
I'd have expected that the telcos would have long since assigned everyone
their own personal non-area-coded 11 digit universal telephone number.
Heck, add a check digit and make it 12 digits, like a credit card.
Maybe I'll live long enough to see telephone numbers without country and
area codes--but I'm not holding my breath.
Cheers,
Chuck