Re: Telephone Area Codes and Prefixes

Feb 20, 2007 0 Replies


Zeros in the first (thousands) position were always 'oh' and


> whenever they appeared in the other three positions when
> non-repetitive they were also 'oh'. When they repeated in the two
> final positions, they were to be pronounced 'hundred'. If the
> second, third and fourth positions were all zeros then they were
> pronounced 'thousand'.

So how would they pronounce 201-200-0000?



Maybe "two-oh-one two hundred oh-thousand"? Or maybe "two-oh-one two-million"?



Yes, that's a valid number. It's a fax in the Criminal Justice Department = at New Jersey City University.

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Neal McLain



[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In the instances of four zeros being idle in Chicago a few years ago, we were told 'oh! oh! oh! oh!' I do not know what they would do with six zeros in a row idle, as in the example you gave. I am sure most all telcos do it the same way (there seems to be some underlying utility organization to which all of them belong for equipment and services; otherwise, why do you suppose _all_ special dialing codes are the same in all parts of the country regardless of telco; why would they otherwise all come to the same agreement on such a thing?), so with that premise in mind that what goes for one of them goes for all, try various area codes followed by 2 and six more zeros; you are bound to find at least a few not in service along the way; my thinking is they will always say 'oh! oh! oh! oh!' on the final four at least. PAT]

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