Wednesday, March 24, 2021

5096 - 10 digit dialing


Apparently, a lot of places in the US are using 10 digit dialing already. Missouri is not one of them, yet. But soon, everyone will be dialing 10 digits. This is happening to accommodate the new suicide prevention hotline number, 988. 

From the article...

In order to meet the technical requirements for the activation by July 16, 2022, of the new 988 National Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Crisis hotline, a number of US numbering plan areas currently enjoying 7 digit dialing for local calls and also using 988 as a central office code (the 3 digits we dial after the area code) will have to migrate to 10 digit dialing. There is going to be a permissive dialing period during which people residing in towns and cities affected by this change can get used to the new dialing method.

7 to 10 digit dialing transition schedule
April 24, 2021 – permissive dialing period begins (calls may be dialed using 7 or 10 digits, the latter is encouraged)
October 24, 2021 – 10 digit dialing becomes mandatory


If you want to read the whole article, go to...

The article says that there are only 80 area codes left where 7 digit dialing is still used. Missouri has 6 of them that cover the whole state. 

I remember 6 digit dialing when I was a kid. My old home phone number, PR6491. Some of my wife's relatives had 4 digit dialing in rural Illinois.

What about other country's blogger buddies? How many digits do you dial?


18 comments:

Ole Phat Stu said...

In Germany we have numbers with two parts.
the (Area Code) leads you to other exchanges,
and the local digits stay within your local exchange.
There is an optional prefix (0049 for Germany) if you want to call outside the country.

The area code has 3 to 5 digits including a leading zero.
Big cities have 3, our little village has 5.
Our local code has 3,4 or 6 digits depending on how old your connection to the exchange is, mine has 4.

I once stayed in a hamlet in Ireland which had SINGLE digit local codes :-)

Elephant's Child said...

I remember six digit dialling. We are currently on 8 - with an additional two digits to be added if we dial out of our home state.

Mike said...

Stu - I found this on Wikipedia... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialling_codes_in_Germany
I guess it's not a whole lot different than the US. Just a few more numbers.

Sue - I found this on Wikipedia... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbers_in_Australia
So between Germany and Australia, I think the US system is still simpler, for now. The US is basically nxx nxx xxxx (n=2-9 x=0-9). Add a 1 in front for long-distance. Cell phones don't get charged for long-distance. Landlines do. It's all politics.

Ol' Simmons said...

2 longs and a short, but that was when I was a kid.

John A Hill said...

Growing up we had 5. I remember when it went to 7.

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

I've lived here for 23 years and it's always been like that here. I moved here from Seattle in 1997 and it was like that there then. I can't even remember not having to use all ten numbers. I really thought everyone had to do that. Wild.

Kathy G said...

Interesting. I've been doing that ever since they added the 636 area code (I lived in west county at the time). Figured everyone did.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Here in Alberta, we've been 10-digit dialling for many years now, ever since new multiple area codes were introduced. Got to be at least a decade, maybe even 15 years ago.

Bilbo said...

I grew up with exchange dialing that used a letter-number combination: FOrest 4-2023. Eventually, the exchanges went away and were replaced by seven digits (364-2023). I don't remember when we went to the ten-digit dialing, since I moved around so much while in the Air Force. I miss the quaint feeling of the exchanges.

Mike said...

Ol' - I should know if that was a 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 party line. I tried to look it up and there's not much info on them. I found the 2, 4, and 8 party, but not the 16 and 32.

John - I don't remember 5.

Peggy - The coasts had to convert because of all the people.

Deb - I'm surprised about Canada.

Bill - Same with me 6 to 7 and now finally for us 10.

allenwoodhaven said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
allenwoodhaven said...

Mike, allenwoodhaven did not write that...

LJ said...

I`ve seen 14 digit numbers from the incoming call appearing on my phone but i never answer them because the first 3 digits dont correspond to any dialing codes for any specific country so its a bit of a mystery where they originate from.

Mike said...

Allen - Got ya covered Allen.

LJ - There's no reason to use Allens' name. Just be LJ.

Kirk said...

Most of the time just seven since I usually only call people in my area code. If it's a neighboring area code, I THINK I can get away with just ten--the area code plus the number--but I haven't done that in a while. Farther away, like when I want to pay a bill by phone, it's 11: the 1 plus the area code plus the number. I was unaware of an impending national suicide number.

Mike said...

Kirk - I didn't know about the change either until I saw this out-of-the-way article.

Tundra Bunny said...

Here in Saskatchewan, we only had one area code for the whole province until about five years ago when a second one was added. So we've been 10 digit dialling for all local calls since then and I still forget sometimes, LOL!

Mike said...

TB - So they did an overlay instead of a split. An overlay will get you 10 digit dialing immediately.