Telephone exchanges by zip

Bloomer Telephone Company Bruce Telephone Company Inc Chequamegon Communications Cooperative Inc Chibardun Telephone Cooperative Inc Citizens Telecommunications Company Of Illinois Citizens Telephone Cooperative Inc Cochrane Cooperative Telephone Co Coon Valley Farmers Telephone Co Cuba City Telephone Exchange company Dickeyville Telephone LLC Farmers Independent Telephone Co Frontier North Inc Frontier North Inc IL Many people would dial the incorrect area code which caused confusion.

In , area code was created as the first "overlay" area code. With an overlay area code, the overlay serves the same geographic as the original to increase the pool of numbers available in the area. When the original phone systems were put in place, 7-digit dialing without the area code could be used to make local calls, and digit dialing with the area code only needed to be used for long distance calls.

In , area code was introduced as the first overlay with forced 10 digit dialing for local calls. Initially, there was substantial public resistance to overlays because of the digit dialing requirement for local calls. However, the last area code split in Canada was in with the split of splitting off and the last area code split in the US was in with splitting off No area code splits are currently proposed and both countries have agreed: without exceptional circumstances, all new area codes will be overlays.

Today, 7-digit dialing is broken in most major cities. Many areas not served by an overlay can still use 7-digit dialing. Something besides allocating more area codes needed to be done to improve the system. After a few trials, mandatory number pooling was implemented in with a national rollout to the largest metropolitan areas.

With number pooling, an entire prefix of 10, numbers is allocated to a specific area, but phone numbers are only allocated to a specific carrier in 1, block increments. While several US markets are still not required to implement number pooling and Canada has no number pooling, the effects dramatically slowed the need to allocate new prefixes and new area codes because of increased utilization.

The rate of issuing new area codes dropped to nearly half that of the s. While it may seem that all consumers in the US use a mobile phone, more than two-thirds of prefixes are allocated for landline use. That number has been dropping by about 3. Not all area codes are assigned to a specific geographic area.

One of the most common are toll-free area codes where the caller is not billed for long distance though wireless customers may have minutes deducted from their plan : , , , , , , and The area code is also currently used for premium services that are billed to the caller at higher than normal long distance rates.

In the s and and early s, numbers were frequently used to target children to run up phone bills, psychic hotlines, adult entertainment, computer help, etc. Legislative protections in the s and the withdrawal of phone companies from passing these fees onto customers has largely killed the number industry. In the late s and throughout the next two decades, United States phone systems began switching to all-number calling, which didn't rely on archaic telephone exchanges and could exponentially add customers just by introducing new area codes.

The change did not happen without some resistance, however. People loved the literary charm of their old telephone exchange names, and groups like the Anti-Digit Dialing League and the Committee of Ten Million to Oppose All-Number Calling were formed to protest the switch.

BY Nick Greene. Crazy, right? We are a c 3 non-profit organization. Except where otherwise noted, this content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. See Copyrights. Explore Map Activity. Add a new page.