Why do you have area codes?

Answer 1

Area codes are a simple method of organizing telephone numbers. In most countries and most areas, local calls within the same area code can be dialed with a shorter sequence of digits than a call to a different part of the country or to a different country. Grouping the numbers by geographic zone makes it easier for users to remember telephone numbers.

Answer 2

In the early days of the telephone system, to place a call to a distant city, you had to call your local operator and tell her the city and the number. If you were calling a major city like New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, the operator would be familiar with the procedure to reach that city, but if you were calling an obscure small town, the operator would probably have to call another operator at the "Rate & Route" desk to find out how to place the call. If you were calling across the country, the call might need to make several hops from one regional hub to another before finally connecting to its destination. The area code system enabled the operator to streamline the process, and ultimately enabled customer direct dialing of long-distance calls.

Answer 3

Having an area code allows the same local number to be used in different places.

The number 567890 may be in use in your town, and again in another town. If you want to call the remote one, you dial the area code first.

Answer 4

Area codes were introduced to streamline the process of making long-distance calls.

Before the introduction of area codes, if you wanted to call from Barstow, California, to Lewiston, Maine, you would first dial your local operator and ask for Long Distance. You would tell the Long Distance operator the number you wanted in Lewiston. The operator would then call "Rate & Route," to find out how to connect a call to Lewiston and how much the call would cost. The operator would then call the next major city down the wire, until the connection was made to Lewiston and the local number you asked for. On a coast-to-coast call, that might involve several "hops," each of which required a person to initiate the next leg of the connection. The process was labor-intensive and therefore quite expensive. Even without adjusting for inflation, charges often exceeded a dollar a minute, and possibly more with extras such as "person-to-person" or "collect" billing. It could take as much as 20 minutes just to complete the call end to end.

With area codes, the operator (and eventually the end user) could simply dial a number and let automated systems choose the best available route.

The first telephone area codes were introduced by Bell Labs in 1947, covering the continental United States (not yet Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico, for example) and Canada.

Answer 5

Area codes were invented to make it easier and cheaper to make long-distance calls. In the very early days of long distance, you had to ring a special operator and tell her the city and number you wanted to reach. If you were calling a less popular destination, the operator might have to look up the route. Then area codes were introduced, but you still had to ask the operator to connect the call for you. Finally, it became possible to dial the area code and number yourself, resulting in dramatically lower costs.

Answer 6

The purpose of telephone area codes was to help route calls around the country. The area codes signal the exchange to connect an individual's call to another destination.