If they went to a system that requires everyone, everywhere, to dial the area code, couldn't we drop the 1?

in the modern world anyone I really want to call is only a click or two away. Area codes have long become meaningless

I believe the "1" is the country code.

Yes, but that results in similar headaches as adding an eighth digit in terms of modifying the way existing technology accesses the system.

What's more important... Us or the machines? ;)

Us - therefore, we don't waste our lives trying to make the system do things for no reason. :) Unless you want to be the tech guy...

As a very tiny example of the impact of changing a phone number. At work we are consolidating two billing offices into one.

The budget for the secondary impacts of updating every instance where we tell customers about the closing office address/phone is $38,000 (it would be the same if just the phone number were changing). Admittedly, there are economies of scale (it would cost only a little bit more to do two office similar office closures), but you can see why we're much happier with 10-digit dialing than lengthening the base number.


(I know that this is just reiterating what I said befoer and GD said before that, but I just realized it was a great example and I was dealing with it today.)

That's just it. The machines will one day take over and rule the world! Bwa ha ha haaaa!

Something just occured to me. If we dial a phone number to anywhere outside the 714 area code, we dial the 11 digits. Inside 714 we did not. So now all we are doing is removing the exception; not adding an extra burden to our lives. I much prefer when rules are absolute. Exceptions just piss me off. A fine example is the english language. "I" before "E" EXCEPT after "C" and, and, and, ........UGGG!

Yes, the cellular phone system. Evedently the "1" is not nessisary when using a cell phone. You can use it or leave it off, either way it will go through. It's the old land lines that you must dial the "1" first.

Honestly, this is how it's been in New jersey for awhile now, and it's really no big deal. Like everything else, you get used to it. It's just 3 more numbers, after all.