Thread: Dial Plans
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Unread 06-03-2007, 08:11 AM   #7
jenalcom
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The original US dialling system (well before the introduction of the "1") checked to see whether the second digit was a 1 or a 0. If it was then the call was long distance (or special services 411, 911, etc.). When they ran out of area codes it was decided to allow use any number as the second digit but that meant they needed some way to determine if the number was LD or not - hence add the 1 in front. However I agree with you - they seemed to have messed it up completely!

In the case of the UK for LD they decided to set up relatively small area codes (towns/small regions) each with, originally, two, three or four digit area codes alway begining with 0. eg: 01 London, 021 Birmingham, 0734 Reading. No local numbers begin with 0 (or 1). When international dialling was first introduced they routed all calls through London and used an international access code of 010, ie London code plus another zero. Nowadays they use 00 as the international access code.

Most (?) European countries use a leading 0 call another area code and 00 as an international call indicator. Also some calls can be charged as local calls even though you have to dial an area code to get there.

Here, in Australia, we have the crazy situation where two thirds of the continent is covered by a single area code (08). This encompasses Western Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory and Australia is approx the same size as the US! So from Perth (where I live) I can call Darwin or Adelaide without dialling any area code (Adelaide is about 2500 kilometers away and Darwin about 4000 kilometers!). We have two digit area codes, beginning with 0, and have to dial 0011 for international.

All good fun I guess!

Alan
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