why ar phone #s in a 111-111-1111 sequence instead of 1111111111?

Question

who made up teh pattern + is it the same pattern every where?

Answer 1

country code-area code-actual number

Answer 2

Much easier to remember

Also there is an historical element. When I was young, our phone number was 1266. That's it, just 1266. In larger cities, where the population exceeded 10000, the phone numbers were assigned according to specific locations called exchanges. Again, to ease remembering the numbers, these exchanges were referred to by a name, followed by a single number such as Lawndale5, which would be dialed as LA5. That's why there are letters assigned to the different numbers on the phone. So if I had lived in the Lawndale exchange, my phone number would have been LA5-1266.

Eventually, area codes were required. At first, area codes consisted of three digits with the middle digit being either a zero or a one. That way the phone system could determine whether a number being dialed was an area code or an exchange number. About the same time, people found that two letters followed by a number was no easier to remember than three numbers and the exchanges slowly converted to all numbers. And now area codes no longer require the 0 or 1 in the middle.

So the phone number is actually comprised of area code, exchange and individual number. For international calls we also have country codes and sometimes city codes as well.

Phone numbers in some countries do not always use the same number of numbers to represent each portion of the complete sequence. An associate of mine in Algeria has a phone number in this format:
213 - (0)29-730-416
and another associate in Abu Dhabi has a number that looks like:
971-50-6677423

Answer 3

Back in the mid-20th century, phone numbers were two letters, a digit, and four more digits. The letters were the first two letters of the name of the local exchange. This is why there are letters on telephone buttons to this day.

I remember many years ago having the phone number LOwell 9-0309. Today, we would dial this as 569-0309. I never knew who or what Lowell was.

Area codes were added later to enable long distance calling without operator assistance. Someone at Bell Telephone decided on 3 digits for North American area codes.

Answer 4

Area code, prefix for your neighborhood and then your personal 4 digit number to connect to your line. Don't know who set it up. Perhaps there is an Internet site with that information.

Answer 5

My guesse is to make it shorter for the dumb people out there in the world! :-) Just kidding about the dumb people, but probobly so that it wouldn't be a really long string of numbers.