You're missing an essential part

[pageantmama]

Area codes are important and can make you call a totally different person if you don't use it. I found this out the hard way. I got a cell phone and since I live in the boonies I got a Chattanooga number. Turned out that the number was the same exact number as the local garbage pickup service, just a different area code. I quickly got that changed and let the phone company know why.

[retailsweetie]

Here in DC everything is area code 202, but the surrounding area of VA and MD each have 4 area codes.

I'm in Maryland, so you know exactly what I'm talking about. And I'm not that far away from you or VA, so I get all 159084238947 area codes in the area. They're crucial, people.

[trailerparkmedic]

I'm in Maryland, so you know exactly what I'm talking about. And I'm not that far away from you or VA, so I get all 159084238947 area codes in the area. They're crucial, people.

Especially since they seem to just randomly spread out the new area codes. My cousin on the Eastern Shore has an area code that starts with a 2, and my sister near Baltimore has the same area code. In Texas, where I live now, there's 3 area codes for the city but they're pretty geographically separate so if you're in the center of the city you can kinda assume what the area code will be. You can't do that in Maryland, and that's what drives me crazy about the situation you've described.

Or maybe it's just flashbacks from my call center days when people complained about needing to give me the area code. Because it's not like I was in a different time zone from them or anything.

[retailsweetie]

Especially since they seem to just randomly spread out the new area codes. My cousin on the Eastern Shore has an area code that starts with a 2, and my sister near Baltimore has the same area code. In Texas, where I live now, there's 3 area codes for the city but they're pretty geographically separate so if you're in the center of the city you can kinda assume what the area code will be. You can't do that in Maryland, and that's what drives me crazy about the situation you've described.

I used to associated it with 3xx was Maryland, 4xx was Baltimore, 2xx was cell phones when they ran out of 3xx numbers. But where I go to school in the mountains has the 3xx (as well as the Ocean City area) and Baltimore now has that other 4xx number and 2xx is houses as well as cells now. It's all over the place.

[dragon_wings]

I used to associated it with 3xx was Maryland, 4xx was Baltimore, 2xx was cell phones when they ran out of 3xx numbers. But where I go to school in the mountains has the 3xx (as well as the Ocean City area) and Baltimore now has that other 4xx number and 2xx is houses as well as cells now. It's all over the place.

I live in Baltimore, only ever had a cell phone (2 different one's with 2 different one's) and both have 4xx area codes (the same 4xx number as well).

[Mr Hero]

I get this every once in a while as a hotel clerk. Someone would give me the last seven digits of their number. There's no excuse for this.

[EricKei]

Ya know...this may be a little bit out there, but I just wanna lay the idea on the table...

Most of the time, When area codes are split up/shrunk, new AC's are introduced, the reasoning is that there are more people, there are fewer numbers due to the explosion in cell phone/FAX usage, etc... So riddle me this:

Why not just make 2 AC's for a given area that have exactly the same coverage area, with one of them being *exclusively* for landlines, and the other for cell phones and faxes (tho exceptions could be made if people ask)? I realize it's far too late to do that now, but I can see one simple benefit right now: People could choose to have the same phone number for home and for cell, just with different areas codes. As a bonus, it would make it easier to tell which type of number you were being given.

Just a thought.

[Nyoibo]

I remember causing problems once when I was in the US putting in phone number and post code, Aus post codes are 4 digits and ph numbers are 8.

[Andara Bledin]

I always thought that the whole point of AC's was to define an area...Revolutionary thought here: How about, if someone is in your AC, you do NOT need to dial 1 nor an AC....otherwise, you need both. Why is that not the standard?! >_<

First off, your exchange is insane. There is absolutely no reason for it to be so inconsistent within such a small sample.

As for why one would need to have to dial the area code within a single geographic area - overlaid area codes. Some areas (Los Angeles, New York, etc) have such a high population/business density, that it's literally impossible to split the region any finer, making it more cost effective and allowing for greater scalability to simply overlay a second area code over the first, occupying the same area.

I've been doing it for as long as I've been allowed to use the phone, so definitely at least 12 years, and that was even when i was calling numbers that had the same exchange as mine (apparently where I live, you didn't always need the exchange or something.)

The first overlay put into operation was the 917 area code over the 212 area code in New York, in 1992, nearly 20 years ago.

^-.-^

[Ironclad Alibi]

Regarding overlay area codes, there are currently over 50 such areas in the US.

List of area code overlays.

[vikingchyk]

I used to associated it with 3xx was Maryland, 4xx was Baltimore, 2xx was cell phones when they ran out of 3xx numbers. But where I go to school in the mountains has the 3xx (as well as the Ocean City area) and Baltimore now has that other 4xx number and 2xx is houses as well as cells now. It's all over the place.

what I love is trying to figure out what is long distance and what isn't, and why. I moved here when there was 7 digit dialing, and 3xx was the only area code in the state. The area code split and 10 digit dialing kicked in a couple of years later. OK, work was still 3xx, home was 4xx, but everything was cool and still local calls. Husband gets a cell phone, with 3xx. Fine. We move 5 miles in 2003, and suddenly his cell phone is long distance, but work isn't. Both 3xx. And we gave up on long distance on the landline phone before we moved, since we both had cell phones by then. So I cannot call his cell phone from the house phone. Minor annoyance. It sure limits how often I call him Anyway, work was still local.

Oh, until one week I tried to call in sick to work, and got the magical tone, and was told I had to dial 1 first. Since when??? Ummm, no. Husband called up Bell Titanic (OK, they were Verizon by then, but I really miss saying Bell Titanic ) and was told that exchange was always long distance for us. Ummm, no. Try again. We live 12 miles away. Sure enough, other people started reporting the same thing. After enough of us yelled at them, they finally admitted they messed up, and fixed it so it was no longer long distance. How on earth do they keep it all straight, when it's turned into such a clusterf*ck?

[Jay 2K Winger]

3 pages and I'm surprised no one's made the obvious joke.

The essential part the Sucktomer is missing is not the area code. It's between their ears.