A 10-digit local call coming to you next?
The changing phone numbers game according to this New York Times story (registration required) has some interesting info about why we're having to deal with so many new area codes (inefficient number allocation due to deregulation of the telecommunications industry and soaring demand for new phone numbers) and our changing phone habits:
Maryland led the way into dialing history - and dialing confusion - when it became the first place in North America to switch from 7-digit to 10-digit phone numbers, on June 1, 1997....
"Something like 80 percent of calls on cellphones are out of the speed-dial memory," said Linc Madison, a telephone consultant who maintains an area-code Web site called LincMad. "Stored numbers have taken over a lot of the burden of remembering or looking up phone numbers."