what are the first 3 numbers of a phone # called?

Question

not the area code but the next 3

Answer 1

the prefix

Answer 2

n the United States, phone numbers are fixed-length, with a total of 10 digits. The 3-3-4 scheme, developed by AT&T in 1947, uses three blocks of numbers arranged in two blocks of three and a single block of four digits. Look at the phone number ...

Area code 919

Prefix 882

Line number 5000


* Area code - Regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), area codes are used to designate a specific geographic region, such as a city or part of a state. In the example , the geographic location is the middle section of the state of North Carolina.

* Prefix - The prefix originally referred to the specific switch that a phone line connected to. Each switch at a phone carrier's central office had a unique three-digit number. With the arrival of computerized switches, many systems now allow local number portability (LNP). This means that a customer's phone number can be moved to another switch without having to change any part of it, including the prefix, as long as the customer does not move out of the local-rate area.
* Line number - This is the number assigned at the switch level to the phone line that you are using. Since the number is assigned to the line and not to the phone itself, you can easily change phones or add more phones to the same line.

Think of the three parts like a street address, where the area code is the city, the prefix is the street and the line number is the house. You can even go a step further with this analogy by including the country. The "1" that you dial on long-distance calls within the United States is actually the country code.

Answer 3

way back when, in the late 50s and earlier, the next 2 numbers were called the EXCHANGE. Local phone numbers looked like this

NR-54321
There wasn't an area code - you had to ask the operator to transfer you to the other city/state/country.


So the 3 numbers you are asking about might still be called the exchange, but it hasn't meant much for a long time.
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OMG, i feel old.

Answer 4

It is also more commonly referred to as the exchange.
(See the highlighted section from Wikipedia below.)

"In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or central office houses equipment that is commonly known as simply a switch, which is a piece of equipment that connects phone calls. It is what makes phone calls "work" in the sense of making connections and relaying the speech information.

The term exchange can also be used to refer to an area served by a particular switch (this was known as a wire center under the Bell System). ==>More narrowly, it can refer to the first three digits of the local number.<== In the three-digit sense of the word, other obsolete Bell System terms include office code and NNX. In the United States, the word exchange can also have the technical meaning of a local access and transport area under the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ)."

Answer 5

The first three numbers are called the prefix number .

Answer 6

Prefix.

Answer 7

Prefix.

Answer 8

Kenneth

Answer 9

I'll just spell it differently for uniqueness:

Pre Fix

Answer 10

"Prefix"? Hmm...I'd always heard it was called the "exchange" number....