Robin Gravel's Blog

The people who set up numbering plans are silly.

 

There are two ways that area code splits are done:

 

-1- People in some parts of an area code region keep their old number and area code; people elsewhere in the region get a new area code. Phone lists and such need to be updated.

 

-2- Everyone keeps their old area code, but a new area code is "overlaid" on the geographic region of the old one. Everyone has to dial 1+10 digits.

 

The right approach would have been to give everyone a new area code, split geographically, but allow numbers with the old area code to be used as an alias. For example:

 

Before split: Joe in Rockford IL is 815-234-5678. Jim in Joliet IL is 815-345-6789.

 

After split: Joe in Rockford IL is 871-234-5678. Jim in Joliet IL is 682-345-6789. Exchange 871-345-xxxx can be used for new numbers in Joliet, and exchange 682-234-xxxx can be used for new numbers in Rockford. Exchange 815-234-xxxx will map to 871-234-xxxx, while exchange 815-345-xxxx will map to 682-345-xxxx.

 

I don't think such a split would have been difficult technically, but it would have allowed everyone to keep their old phone number while still allowing 7-digit dialing for local calls. 1+10-style numbers programmed into dialing directories would continue to work; any 7-digit number could be made to work by prefixing 1+old area code.

 

I wonder if any other country has ever done anything so sensible.

Houston switched to 10 digit dialing did back in 99.