Because of area code splits, overlays, and diverse population and industry, many calls today require ten digits.
I'm glad it worked out for you.
But I thought _I_ was old fashioned about modern technology.
My mother was extremely frugal. When she wanted to talk to her sister (a long distance call), she would use the drugstore phone and bring only enough change for a 3 minute call. That forced her to limit the call to 3 minutes. Normally she and her sister sent postcards back and forth. But about ten years ago they got 5c/min Sundays. They stopped using postcards and used the phone instead, talking for an hour or more. My mother also regularly called relatives across the country. BTW, even in the nursing home they'd let my mother make occassional free toll calls from the nurse's desk.
Anyway, the point is that a once-frugal elderly person who once thought of long distance telephone as very serious business changed and used the phone freely. Certainly you don't want toll calls all over the place all day long, but I would think today a business would be looking at a bigger picture.