It makes more sense to me to keep things consistent. Dial the full 10 for everything, rather than dialing just 7 (or 8) for some numbers, but the full 10 (or 11) for others. Keep it simple.

Adding an 8th digit mean a pretty expansive (doable, but expansive) retooling of our telephone switching system that, with a few billion numbers still unused in the current system seems pointless.

There are a lot more than just those that are excluded (any number starting with 911, 411, 555, 311 come to mind, that's another 40,000 right there). But your math is off. Excluding numbers that start with 1 & 0 leaves 80 million, not 8 million. I was keeping it simple with "fewer than 100 million".

Does it really take that much longer to dial an extra 4 numbers (1+) during the times you actually dial a number?

Also, at least on our cells, if you just program in the 7 digit number and you are outside your local area code the speed dial won't work.

I like the overlays much better than halving the area code and having to change your number. They did this a bunch of times when we lived in LA and you had to get business cards etc all changed. Pain in the patooey.

The big problem with changing to an 8 digit phone number (with or without area codes) is not the time it takes to dial or the quantity of phone numbers available. It is the secondary cost of every single phone number already in use having to be relearned, the cost to update every phone number listing that currently exists (from personal phone books to advertisements to business cards to the hundreds of other places phone numbers are conveyed).

If the phone company were to say "we're adding a digit to your phone number" the uproar would be huge. Governments would fall, lawsuits would be filed, widows would be left crying in the streets.

Simply requiring everybody to always dial the area code is a simple change that the phone companies can implement almost completely on their own with a minimum of collateral damage.

Sometimes I think you write this stuff just to get quoted, Alex. LOL.

You are correct. I was the mathematical idiot this time.

Yes, that is what I was referring to as the "expansive retooling".

The only reason I'm annoyed at the overlay is that at the library, we have to call people when their item holds become available. Each of us usually makes about 5 of these calls a day, and when it's our turn to process the afternoon delivery, the number can shoot up to 20 or 30. I've been adding 1714 for weeks now to prepare myself, so it's already automatic for me.

But, do you dial 1+714+number?

So 4 numbers being 1+714, right?

Yes, you need to "1" prefix.