With cell-phones, I believe that when you switch carriers, you are
> entitled to retain the same number as long as the area code (such as
> 917) is not tied to any specific geographic region.
> But is this also true of land-line phones?
> For example, if you live in midtown Manhattan (New York City) where
> the area code is 212, and you move to upper Manhattan where the area
> code is also 212, can you keep the same number?
> Back in the old days, the exchange code (first 3 digits of the phone
> number) was tied to a certain neighborhood; and if you moved from one
> place to another, as long as the new place had that same exchange code
> available, you could retain the same phone number. Otherwise, you > couldn't.
> Has the technology changed where exchange codes are no longer mapped
> to any particular neighborhood? If that's true, then I suppose you
> could indeed keep the same land-line phone number no matter how far
> away you moved as long as the new place had the same area code,
> correct?
They may allow you to keep the same number if the prefix, not area code, are in the same switching area.
KM