Was the "Z" that appears on old dials ever used as a _dialable_ letter?
I know certainly special numbers had Zs in them since they had to be placed via the operator.
But I'm asking if there were exchanges like an AZtec 3 (203)? I think the use of Z on dials was discontinued before the NPA was drawn up, so that wouldn't have conflicted.
Also, did the Bell System issue phones that had numbers only in places where there were no lettered exchanges, such as small towns that had only 5 or less digits to begin with. There were many places like that. I think the Independent companies issued such phones, but I've never seen a WE phone like that. Maybe they simply standardized on the letter-number layout for all phones.
My Design Line phone rotary dial, made in the 1980s, has letters, but they are very small relative to the number. Presumably at that point the company figured most letters were obsolete, not expecting the
1-800-CALLME in the future.Also...
I've heard that dials in other countries had different lettering than US dials. Has dial lettering been standardized for world wide uniformity, meaning foreign dials converted to the US standard? What about phones in countries where they use their own alphabet, such as Russia?