Local calling regions are usually much, much smaller than a LATA.
> Most of the US can only dial neighboring exchanges for free. Even
> large cities like Chicago and Detroit don't have local calling across
> town, though a few others do. That's mostly a state PUC issue.
The Oklahoma City and Tulsa local calling areas are something like 75 miles across east-west and north-south. There are no zones or other charges associated with making calls in this local calling area.
I believe the Oklahoma City local calling area is the most extensive in the U.S.A. The Atlanta area is not quite as large but serves more telephones (exchange access arrangements or whatever they are called now). These are all flat rate service.
Some of the places where cross-area code 7-digit was permitted, and may still be, were local calls in the greater Kansas City area (816 in Missouriand 913 in Kansas), Texarkana, Arkansas-Texas (that's the name of the post office as well as the exchange), Coffeyville, Kansas, and South Coffeyville, Oklahoma (Pat can furnish the area code for Coffeyville, which is near Independence where he lives; South Coffeyville is in 918).
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Coffeyville, KS is entirely
620-CLinton-1 (620-251) and South Coffeyville, OK is included in the s.e. Kansas regional phone directory for Southwestern Bell. Coffeyville has the occassional 620-252 number, just as Independence (620-EDison-1)[331] has the occassional 620-332, but those 'occassional' numbers are always entirely either either for local government use or perhaps cell phones. Coffeyville gets local calling to S. Coffeyville. PAT]