Hello, Readers!
I've been waiting to get to Lesson 899!
It was the prefix to my home phone number
when I was growing up.
My parents still have the number!
Most of Harborcreek was 899 or 898.
I remember when a few 897 numbers
had to be added,
shortly before cell phones,
and I thought it so weird!
Here is your phone number prefix lesson for the week.
I'll give it to you early in the post--
the rest will be fun,
I promise.
In the United States, phone numbers are fixed-length, with a total of 10 digits. That dates back to the late 1940s when AT&T developed the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) to simplify dialing calls, mostly long-distance. The plan went into effect in 1951. NANP numbers include 10 digits: a three-digit area code and a seven-digit local number. The format is usually represented as NXX-NXX-XXXX.
- Area code: Regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), area codes designate specific geographic regions, such as a city or part of a state. There are 86 original area codes that date back to 1947.
- Prefix: The prefix originally referred to the specific switch that a phone line connected to. Each switch at a phone carrier's central office had a unique three-digit number. With the arrival of computerized switches, systems now allow local number portability (LNP). Today the prefix designates a customer's location, down to the city.
- Line number: This is the number of the phone line that you are calling. These numbers are assigned to the line and not to the phone itself, which is why you can easily change phones or add more phones to the same line.
Think of the three parts like a street address, where the area code is the city, the prefix is the street and the line number is the house.
No quiz this week!
A good teacher doesn't give homework
on Prom (picture walk) Weekend!
Everyone comes to see Sam
not in a sports uniform.
(UNI-prefix: one, single)
.JPG)
