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Why do you have to dial the area code if you are calling from the same area code

I am considering switching over to Verizon Digital Voice, I already have Verizon phone service as part of my quad package. I understand that there are some more features, as well as a reduction of a certain tax resulting in apporx $8 savings per month. The only drawback, as far as my wife is concerned, is that we would be required to dial the area code even if we are calling next door. I am curious as to why that is. I live on Long Island, New York. Any insight would be helpful. I have used the speed dial argument, but I am getting resitance. Thanks in advance. Marv

Comments

mleduc35651

Digital Voice is Internet based. The call routes the internet at large and works differently then the old style Copper phone lines

Within the internet based calling the system has no way of paying attention to where you are calling from so it needs the area code to call any number.

MarvKirsch

OK, that sort of makes sense. I have friends with Cablevision (local cable company) and when you use their VOIP service, there is no need to call the area code IF you are calling the same area code. Is Digital Voice a VOIP or is it different, which would answer my latest question.

sector001

the phone companies requires you to dial the area code because they are running out of telephone numbers. it dont matter what type of line you have. you are always required to dial the area code even if you are calling your neighbor next door.

MarvKirsch

So I assume going forward it will be 10 digit dialing. I'm guessing that we're getting away with it, but that will go away shortly. I am going to try to convince my wife to let me make the switch. Thanks to all.

marc3565

@sector001 wrote:
the phone companies requires you to dial the area code because they are running out of telephone numbers. it dont matter what type of line you have. you are always required to dial the area code even if you are calling your neighbor next door.

Not all Area codes enforce that rule. It seems to vary quite a bit. Where I am now 716 area code does not require 10 digits . The area is losing population mostly so I doubt that would change any time soon.

As to the comment about Cablevision allowing 7 digit calling... Digital Voice is basically the same as VOIP. I have not heard of any VOIP doing 7 digit dialing. It is possible one of them spent the time and money to program it in but it's pretty rare.

Your best argument is to take your taxes and fees on your Copper phone bill (excluding any sales taxes) and multiply by 12. Then you can make that argument that you will avoid paying that much a year to the government.

mongobill

Just switched from Vonage and they had a home area code feature that allowed same area code calls, so that whenever you dialed a 7 digit phone # it went through as a local area call. Don't understand why my new Verizon service can't do that; just makes me think I haven't figured it out yet.

lasagna

It's called a "dial plan". Phone service providers (Verizon, Vonage, etc.) all decide how to interpret the digits you dial from your phone ... how many digits are enough to start figuring out what you mean, what digits are used indicate an international call, etc. Enterprises that have their own internal phone systems deal with this all the time (5 digit dialing maybe within a campus, 8+seven digits for on network calls, 9+seven or ten digits for outside calls, etc. Many enterprise systems will also do things like catch "outside" calls that could have been placed as an "on network" call and reroutes it as if you had dial the 5 digit or 8+ version of the number. At the end of the day, regardless of what you may actually dial ... the end result inside the phone system ends up being that unique 11-digit number (1+areacode+phone) which identifies whose phone you want to ring.

Anyhow ... Verizon evidently decided that a 10-digit dial plan was the one they wanted to use.

So, could they make 7-digit dialing work ... yes. However, I doubt they will for a number of reasons...

As was referenced earlier on this thread, the explosion of phone numbers in the country has causes localized shortages of numbers in various regions. When they "run out" of numbers in a region, they have two choices --- either change the area code for half of the customers in the region (which makes 50% of the people happy but ticks off the other 50%) or implement what they call "area code overlay". In this latter case, two area codes server the same geographical area. So you could have a number with one area code while your neighbor could have a number with a different area code. The impact here is that people who don't clearly communicate the area code with their number all the time risk having someone call the wrong number (if I only give you 7-digts in an overlayed area -- there are two numbers, one in each area code, to which I could be referring). It's certainly confusing.

So, what Verizon is evidently trying to do is disassociate the antiquated "area code" concept from the assignment of a phone number and get people to start thinking about phone numbers as 10-digts numbers instead of only 7-digits (think about people who get cell phones in one area of the country, move to a different region, yet keep their old cell phone number -- works just fine, doesn't it?). Computers handle calls now and what was once an important call routing concept when calls were being manually or switched in analog fashon really is no longer a major driver.

By getting people to start thinking in terms of 10-digts all the time -- future changes (such as area code overlays, etc.) become far less of a burden because there's no "reprogramming" or other changes which are needed by individuals in impacted areas and maybe even enables more radical concepts such as need more than 10-digts to handle all traffic.

Think about it from a cell phone perspective ... do you program 7-digit or 10-digit numbers into your contacts list? Well, if you want those contacts to work regardless of where you're presently calling from in the country, you program in 10-digits, right?

GaryDoug

Well, we don't have overlays in my area. When we ran out of numbers, they just switched half of us to another area code. I was one switched and didn't mind a bit. Nobody with a landline within 30 miles of me has another area code.

Seems to me this is a good opportunity for a phone manufacturer to produce a digital phone with the option to precede a number called with the chosen/programmed area code, if only 7 digits were entered. So far as I can find, there is no such product available. I could use one.

bluayez1

With all of the options that Verizon provides to modify your service, it would be simple enough to allow you to select your "home" area code and use that if only 7 digits entered. I swear at the phone everytime I try to dial my neighbors. We don't actually use our home phone often, and I don't NEED to enter the area code on my cell phone as long as I'm in my home area. This is a MAJOR PITA! That Verizon could easily provide a solution for. It's most likely why we'll either get rid of Verizon and go back to COX.... or just get rid of the home phone.

Calruby

I just had to throw in my 2 cents. It's very UNTRUE that everyone has to dial 1 and their own area code when making a call. I'm in Northern CA and have AT&T for our phone company. We have never had to dial 1 or our own area code to make a local call...EVER! We don't have to dial anything but the 7 digit phone number as long as it's in our own area code. We are charged a local toll charge if the number we're calling is out of town. But we still do NOT have to dial anything but their 7 digit number. When dialing out of our area code, then and only then, do we have to dial 1 and their area code and the 7 digit telephone number. I'm really sorry to hear that some people in other areas and states have to go through all that dialing just to call their next door neighbor. It's a real pain. I just recently had someone tell me that they had to start dialing all that when calling next door. I would have never believed them if I hadn't come here and read your posts.

Justin46

@Calruby wrote:
I just had to throw in my 2 cents. It's very UNTRUE that everyone has to dial 1 and their own area code when making a call. I'm in Northern CA and have AT&T for our phone company. We have never had to dial 1 or our own area code to make a local call...EVER! We don't have to dial anything but the 7 digit phone number as long as it's in our own area code. We are charged a local toll charge if the number we're calling is out of town. But we still do NOT have to dial anything but their 7 digit number. When dialing out of our area code, then and only then, do we have to dial 1 and their area code and the 7 digit telephone number. I'm really sorry to hear that some people in other areas and states have to go through all that dialing just to call their next door neighbor. It's a real pain. I just recently had someone tell me that they had to start dialing all that when calling next door. I would have never believed them if I hadn't come here and read your posts.

You must be in a VERY rural area. Here in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, we transitioned to mandatory 10 digit dialing 15 or 20 years or more ago - everybody, Verizon, AT&T, whoever. This is because we have "overlay area codes", where my next door neighbor may have a different area code from mine, and the one on the other size of my neighbor may be the same as mine, so the decision was made that everybody would do it. I don't know for sure how many "local" area codes we have now, but I think there are two or three in the Ft. Worth area and three or four in the Dallas area. For a few weeks there were a lot of complaints, then people got used to it, and now, so what?

And no, we don't have to dial "1" unless it really is long distance, just the 10 digits. And why in the world is 10 digits a big deal anyway? Don't you have every number you normally call programmed into the phone? It is a rare day that I actually have to push the number buttons to make a call any more....

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, Internet, and phone user
QIP7232
Keller, TX 76248

john19831

I 've worked in Atlanta, Charleston SC, Charlotte NC and Miami, and DC, for over 25 years and we have never had to dial a ten digit phone number unless it was long distance.

john19831

..oops, forgot.. when I was working my crew out of DallasTX (2000-2009) we didn't have dial ten digits there either.

denster1

I STILL HAVE MY ORIGIONAL PHONE NUMBER ALL I DID WAS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A NEW PRICEING PACKAGE. SO WHY CHANGE MY LOCAL DIALING?

groovylou1

We just switched over to Verizon FIOS from Brighthouse Digital literally hours ago. My wife went to make a call and it required her to dial the area code, she was call me on my Verizon Cell Phone within the same area code. I saw that someone earlier said that the Fios Phone system worked the same as the Cable companies Digital Phone system, however we never had to dial the area code with Brighthouse. The tech guy on the phone told me that it works the same way cell phone companies systems work. I told him that my cell service doesn't work that way and it is with Verizon.

Poorfellow

@MarvKirsch wrote:
I am considering switching over to Verizon Digital Voice, I already have Verizon phone service as part of my quad package. I understand that there are some more features, as well as a reduction of a certain tax resulting in apporx $8 savings per month. The only drawback, as far as my wife is concerned, is that we would be required to dial the area code even if we are calling next door. I am curious as to why that is. I live on Long Island, New York. Any insight would be helpful. I have used the speed dial argument, but I am getting resitance. Thanks in advance. Marv

Ten digit calling is the dial plan in all of NYC. Based on the number of legacy and overlay area codes, NYNEX/Bell Atlantic chose to stick with a consistent "always use the area code to dial within the LATA" plan.

I believe that most of the wire centers in the 516 area code are also subject to this 'all or nothing' solution, and the tandem switch (the aggregate switch for a large area) would need to receive the full number to determine within which overlay area code the recipient of the call's switch exists.

Keep in mind you live in the most densely-populated region of the US, so it makes sense to instill the expectation of using the area code to avoid mis-dialing. A ton of exchanges are recycled across overlay area codes in the NY metropolitan area, leading to potential constant mis-dialing if the area code could be omitted -- this was the case in the 1980s when the 718 area code was introduced to extend the life of 212.

Poorfellow

@mleduc3565 wrote:
Digital Voice is Internet based. The call routes the internet at large and works differently then the old style Copper phone lines
Within the internet based calling the system has no way of paying attention to where you are calling from so it needs the area code to call any number.

Based on account info, the soft switch is fully capable of acknowledging the location of the subscriber. It would seem that Verizon prefers the 10-digit scheme to allow flexibility in implementation, or end-user consistency.

In the case of the original poster, the adjacent region will most likely move to a 10-digit calling plan due to congestion at some point. The NY PUC has been aggressive in adding area codes to alleviate exhaustion of exchange numbers.

In NYC, we're already using 10-digit dialing, even for local calls on POTS. Such is life in (or near) the big city...

GaryDoug

A business associate of mine uses this telephone system for his office:

http://www.yeastar.com/Products/MyPBX.asp

From page 33 of the "MyPBX Standard User Manual" :
"·Prepend these digits before dialing: These digits will be prepended to the phone number before the call is placed. For example, if a trunk requires 10 digit dialing, but users are more comfortable with 7 digit dialing, this field could be used to prepend a 3 digit area code to all 7 digit phone numbers before calls are placed. When using analog trunks, a 'w' character may also be prepended to provide a slight delay before dialing "

This is the way Verizon should have done it. That way it would work for any phone.

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