Re: [Telecom] Re:Louisiana town changing its 666 phone prefix

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> "REEVES, La. After decades of living with what Mayor Scott Walker calls a > > > stigma, residents of this southwest Louisiana village are getting a new > > telephone exchange, one without the biblical connotations attached to > > their current 666." > > > > -- > > John Mayson > > Austin, Texas, USA > > In the 1960s when Centrex service was relatively new, Phillips Petroleum > headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was offered the choice of prefixes 660, > 661 and 666. They chose 661.

Which is the fastest of the three to dial on a 60's era phone, and probably saved them days per year of wasted dialing time.

--Gene

***** Moderator's Note *****

The reason, no doubt, for the nnx-1212 numbers for police. Funny, I never thought about it before.

It's sort of like saying "You can get in on the ground floor": you wouldn't think anyone would want to rent an office on the ground floor of a new building, until you realize that the phrase came from the time before buildings had elevators.

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

Reply to
Gene S. Berkowitz
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Just curious, why then was "911" chosen for emergency use instead of, say, "211" ?

***** Moderator's Note *****

I don't know for sure, but I'd bet it's to prevent accidentally dialing the first digit. Then again, it might have been for some other reason.

The nice part about being the moderator, even temporarily, is that I can guess about stuff and look like I'm smart when I luck out.

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

Reply to
Justa Lurker

By the time 911 cam along the companies had already switch all the numbers like 114 to 411 and so on, I would guess that would be the reason being that may have been the next number in the series. I know in the 60's Los Angeles had a single emergency # 116, they advertised it as IF in a fix dial 116. I wonder why 999 was not used like in England, does Canada use 911?

Reply to
Steven Lichter

Did you ever think about the initial area code assignments of 212,

213, and 312?
Reply to
panoptes

I think 211 was already in use, along with 411 and 611.

Reply to
panoptes

They claim that was to minimize pulling the rotary dial.

Reply to
Sam Spade

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