I could be wrong but I think there was a period after the exchanges were used (no need to use full names) and folks continued using 2 letters as a prefix to a number because they were easier to remember that way (can still remember my cousin's 70s number to this day PL78750). You would look at the phone to determine the number for P and L.
Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
31–40 of 145 posts
Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
And I love how they call it "10-digit calling" even though it generally requires 11 digits (or 11 button presses on cell).
I'm not sure I follow. Obviously cell phones and cordless phones have a talk button, but that's not very digitlike. When I operate a landline, I just enter ten digits: 9095551212. Are you implying a leading 1 would be necessary? IME, it isn't for local 'ten digit dialing'.
The 909 area code? What, are you buying meth?
Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
#33The exchange prefix once mapped to a single physical central office location.
It wasn't until the 1980s that there was much lookup involved in local calls. In telephony, converting phone numbers to routes is called "translation". Before cheap memory, translation was really hard. In "A History of Engineering & Science in the Bell System: Electronics Technology", there are descriptions of various special purpose devices developed to store data. Hand-wired ROMs the size of racks. Optical metal card readers for long distance route storage. By the 1980s, little 3B minicomputers running a real-time variant of UNIX.
It was a long time before numbers were just 10 digits with arbitrary mapping.
Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
#34When I was a kid in the 80's (and probably early 90's) I remember visiting my grandparents and other family in Frederick, Oklahoma, and everyone there had 5-digit phone numbers. I still remember my Aunt's #, because we would stay with my grandmother for weeks at a time in the summer and would often call over to my cousin's house.
Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
#35Well that's one mystery solved: https://youtu.be/QacpBRPonzM?si=7kFqTOe9S9F0OORy I never knew why Homer gave the fictional number 'KL5-3226' ("Klondike-five") for his Mr. Plow commercial.
I knew the guy who had 1-800-FUCK-YOU, and he used it to sell those classic bumper stickers: "How's my driving? Call 1-800-FUCK-YOU!"
Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure I follow. Obviously cell phones and cordless phones have a talk button, but that's not very digitlike. When I operate a landline, I just enter ten digits: 9095551212. Are you implying a leading 1 would be necessary? IME, it isn't for local 'ten digit dialing'.
The 909 area code? What, are you buying meth?
411 on the 909: https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/909/
Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
#37When I was a kid in the 80's (and probably early 90's) I remember visiting my grandparents and other family in Frederick, Oklahoma, and everyone there had 5-digit phone numbers. I still remember my Aunt's #, because we would stay with my grandmother for weeks at a time in the summer and would often call over to my cousin's house.
In my country, you did not have to use area codes when dialing a local phone number. I guess you had the same experience
Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
#38If you are interested in this kind of stuff, check out C*NET aka CKTS or Phreaknet. Or maybe the Connections Museum on YouTube. There are a surprising number of people doing weird stuff with old electromechanical switches or emulations thereof.
Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
#39This article, and Wikipedia, and apparently everyone else, all cite the same 2001 nytimes article regarding the Committee of Ten Million to Oppose All-Number Calling. How influential were they, really, if that is the only remnant of their existence?
Here’s a New Yorker piece from 1962 mentioning them, at least: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/10/27/comment-4830
Haha, their big plan was to make up new prefix names.
Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)
#40My mother explained this to me (in the '70s or '80s) when I was complaining about them changing or phone number... they took the first three digits of our seven digit number for something. Her number used to be "Tuxedo" (TX) something, something, something. I don't know if she joined the "Anti-Digit Dialing League" that the article mentions, but I could tell she liked she old number. Her point was that they'd changed…
Before more advanced computerized call routing and SS7 signaling changes area codes had to map to one specific non-overlapping region. So when a metro area needed more exchange prefixes they had to split the area code and some subset of customers got pushed onto a new area code.
In more modern times they assign an "overlay": multiple area codes can be assigned to the same region so there is no need for splits.
Actually the system isn't really hierarchical anymore. Thanks to number portability optimizations any switch can lookup the destination switch for a 10 digit number. Thanks to faster computers and larger storage that isn't the problem it once was.