Who decides on what an Area Code will be?
By: Don | Posted: 04th March 2010
If you have ever wonder what exactly an area code is for now you will know. You will also find out who is responsible for making and setting them in place for the different areas.
There is one place responsible of making the area codes. They are called the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). The company was put into effect in 1947 by AT&T in order for people to make long distance phone calls.
Area codes became a part of a cities phone number when the city got too big in population. There use to be only seven numbers you would have to dial in order to make a phone call anywhere in the city or to cities close by. You would only use the area code if you were going to call long distance.
As cities grew in population there were not enough seven digit numbers to go around for everyone. Now it is up to NANP to decide on an area code for the city. Once an area code is decided on it will be put in place for the whole city and the phone numbers now consisted of ten digits. Even though area codes are put into effect for cities sometimes one area code is not enough. If the city keeps growing in population then a new area code will have to be made for the same city. When the new area code is put in place it is called a split. The split is where NANP is dividing the city and deciding where the old area code stays and where the new area code will be used.
When NANP decided on the numbering system for area codes they decided which numbers would be where. The first number of the area code will only consist of the numbers 2 through 9. Up until 1995 the second number in an area code had to consist of either 0 or 1. By expanding the numbers on the second set of digits it made many more new area codes.
Today there are over 800 possible area codes that have been made up. Some are being used today and some are on hold until they are needed, while others are reserved for a particular area.
If you have a ten digit code you need to look up for any reason you can do so easily online. The process is called a phone number lookup and there are many websites offering the services for you to use. A phone number lookup is set up to give you valuable information about the phone number. You can learn who owns the number along with a valid address for the phone number. It does not matter if the phone number is in the same city as you or on the other side of the United States. The phone number will be linked with a name when you do a phone number lookup.
If you only have a name and need the phone number then you could conduct a people search. Upon the website completing the search if there are any known phone numbers associated with the person you will be shown what the number is.
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Tags: phone call, phone number, digits, population, long distance phone, phone numbers, area code, area codes, numbering system