Re: Dialing Around: How Rotary Phones Shaped the Distribution of US Area Codes [telecom]

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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > These days, our phones tend to keep track of these things for us, but

back when most people memorized numbers, they didn't always make > sense. The first digits of zip codes and social security numbers > assigned in the United States ascend from east to west, starting low > around the original American colonies and going up from > there. Interstate numbering also follows east/west as well as > north/south patterns. So how did the country wind up with such an odd > layout of area codes? For context, we need to revisit the earlier days > of the phone network. > >
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The long distance dialing network had two phases. The first was to automate operator dialing between points. A crude area code layout was arranged, somewhat similar to what became later, but not the same. Secondly, customer dialing was planned. Several variations of the plan were developed, with the modern version coming out in 1947. There's a Bell Telephone Magazine article on this on the TCI website, but it's restricted to TCI members.

In 1947, customers weren't aware of area codes since no one could dial long distance as yet. DDD spread slowly through the 1950s.

In the late 1950s Bell began to inform customers of area codes and direct distance dialing. Here is an ad from 1959:

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(neat ad for Remington typewriters follows)

Here is an ad from 1961:

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In 1967 Bell encouraged customers to use the area code:

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