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11 Digit Dialing Comes Home to New York
Traicovn writes "The NY Times (free registration, yadda yadda) is carrying an article about 11 digit dialing coming to the city of New York for all phone calls, including inner city calls. Yes, that means even to dial across the street you will have to dial 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx. Eventually as the phone number system fills up because of more people having cellphones/pager/fax and a home/office phone line we may see this happening in more cities across the nation or the NANPA may have to intervene by making phone numbers longer in general."
Maybe because IPv6 has not yet gone mainstream ?
I don't think that 2^32 different addresses could be enough.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
So 10-digit == 11-digit dialing, basically, no?
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
get a cellphone and you don't need to think about numbers.
just search a name from the list and press dial
The worst part about 10-digit local calls is never being sure whether it's free or toll.
Calling your neighbor across the street... probably not toll. Calling the local blockbuster... well, PROBABLY not. Calling a plumber you looked up in the phone book? No way to tell really, without committing to memory the HUGE tables of "local to" exchanges in the front of the phone book. (I used to develop automated calling systems and I've had to deal with this for years.)
It turns your phone bill into a reverse lottery every month.
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
This is more important to the rest of the world since it has come to New York?
Maryland has had 10 (and in some places 11) digit dialing for years because of sharing it's boarder with West Virginia, DC, Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.
If New Yorker's would get out more, they would realize the world doesn't revolve around them.
If the slashdot editor's got out more, they would realize that things *do* take place first outside of New York.
Thanks you insensitive clods.
-- You don't shoot to kill, you shoot to stay alive.
That sounds like a good idea, but there's a problem with it. How many phone lines do you have for yourself? A cell phone, regular phone, maybe fax machine, and who knows what else. So you might need 5 different phone numbers. How do you account for that?
Also, remember that its not only people who need phone numbers. I forget the exact number of people in NYC, but let's say its 10 million - enough to fill one area code. But remember the number of businesses in NYC, and the number of people who have cell phones, fax machines, etc... Also remember that there are only 5 or 6 area codes in NYC (I forget how many exactly), so that's only good for 50-60 million numbers. On top of all their numbers, they still need room for future expansion, because so far, people just keep getting more numbers. So that's why we need more and more numbers.
The only solution to that is to hide the number. Using a DNS might not be the best way though (as someone suggested), as the would only mean we need to remember even more oddities.
So how do we remember people's emails? Using automatic address books. How do I remember someones mobile phone number? I don't write them down, and I can't even recall my own number from memory. Again address books.
So the answer is that we will get even more advanced address books that hide away the IP (or whatever ID might be used) simply because it is too hard to remember those numbers. Most phones have these already and it gets easier and easier to exchange mobile phone numbers.
And to make it even easier, I guess it would be easier and easier to redirect calls. For example, I am done with work and am on my way home. My bluetooth in my mobile phone no longer has any connection to the phone at work, so it automatically changes to mobile phone first. When I get home my home phone says hi to my mobile phone, and once again it automatically redirects me. And when someone calls me they automatically get redirected to where I am, and they only need to keep one single entry on me. Simple and easy.
All the technology is there (more or less) already, it all needs to be integrated. And if you are wondering what M$ might be up to, I bet this is something like it (and with emails as well). Just a guess;)
2) And, if you add the SAME number to the beginning of everything, that gives you nothing. Why would they do that?
3) I used to work on phone switch software, and the only reason I can see is that they don't want to have to differentiate between a local (i.e. 10 digit) call and a long distance (i.e. 11 digit) call. This way, the switch can run less code. No need to wait before it starts routing the call. It can start routing as soon as you start typing numbers. This, and the use of reserved area codes (\d[0,1]\d) as exchanges, was the big motivator behind the 10 digit move.
T
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
Uh, because it would be bloody annoying to have to tap out a 38-digit number (IPv6 has 10^38 possible combinations, IPv4 doesn't have the capacity to be used for telephony) everytime you wanted to reach someone?
I don't think this is a problem. Most of my calls I make from my Nokia and I have all the numbers I use in there, like "Bobby (Home)" or "John {Work)". And numbers usually get into the phone from another electronic device anyway, IR link from another Nokia, vcard via SMS or however. It won't be too long before the idea of phone numbers is as obsolete as keying an IP address (yes I know Slashbots probably use IP addresses every day, but the typical user has no idea that there even is such a thing). When was the last time you emailed someone as username@aaa.bb.ccc.dd?
I was actually wondering why they didn't just start new area codes in states just for pagers and cell phones. That would've saved everyone a LOT of headaches.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
That's all well and good until you break your phone and realize that the only numbers you know are 911 and POSSIBLY your home number. I live in Japan where EVERYONE has a cell phone and they show the same dependancy. My cell phone got dropped in water once and I damned near had a heart attack freaking out over the possibility of losing so many phone numbers and email addresses. Fortunately, my new phone has a SONY 8MB memory stick which I back everything up to periodically. (I did recover the stuff from my old phone...Docomo phones are damned near indestructable)
Also, I type out full email addresses just about everytime I send an email to friends off of my work's Outlook Web Access. Maybe there's a better way, but it's not that hard to remember an old fashioned email address.
I've dirtied my hands writing poetry, for the sake of seduction; that is, for the sake of a useful cause. --Dostoevsky
Yes direct dail is cute, but unnessary. Most places only list the master number any way. Even on caller id, so if I place a redail I get the master number, so why have direct lines? Even for those few that a direct number can help... why give it to all?
Businesses with updated phone systems and ISDN PRI can deliver desktop calling party info to outside lines as well as internally. Many places (like us) haven't made that upgrade yet and still rely on T1 trunking which doesn't have that capability -- on our system you get just the trunk number.
The advantage to direct inward dial is huge. For a company of 500 people, you'd need 5 people to handle incoming call routing (4 operators and a supervisor), that's easily $200k in pay & bennies alone compared to under $5k for DID capable trunks.
You *could* have a voicemail system answer the calls and do some lame menu/directory system, but many businesses and customers can't or won't tolerate that, they want a person or an individual voicemailbox to answer it.
Any shmoe can print up business cards and claim to be a pager company, a wirelesss com[any or a CLEC. Then he orders some phone numbers. Thanks to rules that the industry doesn't want to change, the minimum block of numbers that can be allocated is 10,000 numbers. The are a lot of blocks of 10,000 phone numbers where 100 or 1 or none are actually being used. It doesn't take many schomes doing this before "we're running out of numbers."
In Illinois the consumer groups wanted to lower the block size but they were denied.
BTW, the management of numbers is handled by a independent company hired for the purpose. The local ILEC has no control over it. Number portability is supposed to happen. In most states, you can keep your phone number when you change your local phone company.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
Somebody help me get a clue: At first glance, it would seem that a seven digit number would be good for almost 10 million phone numbers,
You'd start with 10 million, then knock off anything starting with the digit one or zero, which is minus 2 million. Then you also have to knock off anything starting 555 or 911, which is another 20,000. Thus you actually will get at best 7,980,000. Plenty of cities which require rather more telephone numbers than that.
There is another twist telephone numbers are assigned in blocks of 10,000 (the last 4 digits). This made sense about a century ago where the 4 digits actually refered to a specific piece of hardware, but it's just been continued.
In the past, the FCC has guarded the '1' since
everyone knows that marks long-distance. It seems
to me that having your local calls also require
a '1' means that you can't tell when a number
is long distance or local.
Given the amount of incorrect billing (in my mind
I would call it fraud) that I have seen on my
telephone bills in the last 5 years, the last
thing I would want to see is a blurring of the
local/long distance distinction.
It's bad enough that I can call a number in
another state hundreds of miles away,
and have it billed by my local
Bell for 300% more than my state-to-state
carrier. (And yes, I have changed my local
carrier; but in-state, even between states, is
still more expensive than state-to-state).
Now, it won't even be clear when a number is
local.
About a decade ago in Minnesota, the 612 area code stretched from Minneapolis out to where I lived ... Hickville. If you were making a call down the street ... 7 digits. If you were making a call in the Cities, 11 digits. But say you always had to do 11-digit dialing. You dial the wrong number, there's a reasonable chance you'll get charged for lond distance, even though you were calling down the street.
The reason you have to dial 1 to call long-distance is so you won't end up accidentaly calling long-distance if you didn't want to. It's completely arbitrary to make people dial one for local calls. All they need to do is dial 10-digits, I mean dammit! So many people are idiots.
incripshin
There are certain distinct disadvantages to having variable length phone numbers. Since you are not pressing an "enter key" on your telephone when you are done dialling the number (mobile phones are an exception here), the exchange has to guess when you are done keying in digits. In the American situation, this is easy to do, as the exchange can just count the digits. In a variable length situation, the total length of the number depends on the digits already dialed.
Incidentally, the variable system wastes more numbers, as you need the first digits to indicate what kind of a phone number it is going to be.
Now that I am on my soapbox, I think all phone numbers worldwide should start with a "+" and should be of fixed length, just for the sake of simplicity.
Umm no. They'll have a single PRI (specifically 23 B channels and 1 D - so 9 PRI's would actually only allow 207 simultanious incoming and outgoing calls - but I digress), and 200 numbers. The numbers are, hopefully, one nice large bank, and when the PBX receives a call for 555-1212, it'll be smart enough to see 'oh 1212 is ours, that goes to ext 1212'. At least that's the easy way to do it ;) When you move up to T1's, you'll route to extensions via DNIS digits. The easy way to do that is also by the last 4 digits (but it sucks when you get an 800# that happens to have the same last 4 as another 800 or an internal extension - but again I digress)
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
You don't just need 10-digit dialing, you need 11-digit dialing because 11-digit dialing is deterministic. For example, say you are visiting another city and someone gives you a phone number to call -- an area code you don't recognize. In the US there is no way to be sure you are dialing the number correctly.
To properly dial a number in the traditional US system, you have to know: (1) what area code you are in now, (2) what area code you are dialing, (3) the physical location of the number you are calling relative to where you are now, (4) the inter-LATA boundaries of the area you are in.
Numbers in the same area code may be long-distance (requiring 11-digit dialing) or not (requiring 7-digit dialing). Traditionally, you would try it one way -- if it didn't work, try it the other way.
With mandatory (or even optional) 11-digit dialing for local numbers you can now dial a number and know for sure that it is going through. For example, you can program your notebook's modem to call your local ISP using 11-digit dialing and it will work no matter where in the country you are (even from home).
The problem is unique to North America: most countries require you to dial an access code before the phone number, such as 0 before domestic calls in Europe. Effectively that works the same way as 11-digit dialing will work here.
No, I don't want to explore the Recycle Bin.
And Mobile phones don't necessarily conform to geographic boundaries. When you roam out of your home area, the cell network has to know where you phone is and route it accordingly. An incomming call gets routed to your home area, then routed back out to your phone. Not much difference than IP routing...