[DeTomaso] NPC USA Phone numbers...

[detomasoregistry at gmail.com]

I see at least one US Pantera owner hse the same area code for both his 
land line and cell phone.

I guess someone in the US would be able to clear this up.

> 
> 
> Erik

Thomas

In the USA under the 'old' phone number plan, if the first 3 digits had a 0 or a 1 in the
middle position, (Example: 415, 408, 212) this group was an area code.  The 'prefix' group
didn't have either a 0 or 1 as the middle digit, 415-967-1050.

Phone numbers were grouped first by area code, then prefix.  The prefix was the 3 digit
designation for the "trunk office". Long ago (Pre-early 1960's ?), the prefix was
described as a word or name, like JAsper, where the first 2 digits were the
first 2 characters of the name assigned, in this case JA.  It was assumed people could
remember a phone number of only 5 digits, and thus could remember JAsper 5-4321, versus
555-1212.

As the demand for phone numbers grew (especially with the use of cellular phones), it
became necessary to drop the 0/1 uniqueness.  I don't know about now, but you used to be
able to get your cell phone area code to be the same as your landline, for example my 
family has several cell phones, all with the same area code as our landline.

This benefitted the customer's billing, as dialing the same area code would be considered
a local call, and thus cheaper.  But then the cell phone billing formula changed to
increase profit to the cell phone companies and they created their own system, no longer
based upon the "zone" system of 'distance' which the initial monopoly landline company (Ma
Bell) created.  For most USA cell services, distance or location is not a determining
factor in billing, it is the duration of the call.  (Referred as 'free' long distance.)
Free long distance often does not include calls to Canada from the USA, it depends upon
your contract, as although our northern brothers may be physically close, they are
considered "international" and the billing again depends upon your cell contract.

Now, it can be hard to tell where a phone is from (geographic location) just from the
assigned area code.  

Bottom line,  Yes we (USA) can get a cell area code to be the same as a landline.

Chuck