Hello Tony,

On Tuesday June 26 2018 19:23, you wrote to me:

 TL> Yeah we had some variation, but now all numbers can be dialed with 10
 TL> digits. From memory, since the 1990s at least, it has been possible to
 TL> dial local numbers with the area code.  That was handy for mobile
 TL> phones, because I could put the entire phone number into the phone,
 TL> and it worked work anywhere in the country.

Here the areas are much smaller, usually a radius of some 10 km. So for the
mobile phones it is a dire necessity to be able to always dial including the
area code, since most of the time you do not know in which area code you are.

Before the advent of mobile telephonie, it was sometimes a guess when in a
payphone in the middle of nowhere.

Originally (<1980 or so) we hade a second dialtone between the area code and
the subscriber's number. One had to wait for the second dial tone. When the
area code was dialled from within the area, one got a busy tone.

The first change was that the second dial tone was still there, but one did not
have to wait for it any more. The second step was to do away with the second
dial tone. The third step was to always allow dialing including the area code.
The fourth step was a major renumbering operation (ca 1995) that made all
numbers ten digit. Though ommiting the area code for local calls was and is
still possible for the "fixed" lines.

Also the international access code changed from 09 to 00 and servive numbers
starting with 00 (operator, time, ect) were changed to numbers starting with 1
or 09.

 MvV>> Not much later local calls could either be made by dialing the
 MvV>> full 10 digit number including the area code or just dialing the
 MvV>> local number.

 TL> Here it's provider dependent.  The traditional telcos still allow
 TL> local call dialing without the area code, but some VoIP providers
 TL> (like mine) insist on the full 10 digits.

I have two "fixed" lines. One from my main ISP. It is a region dependant number
with an area code in my region. It allows local dialling without the area code.
The other is from a dedicated VOIP provioder. It is a so called region
independant number. (quasy area code 085). It requires full 10 digit dialing,
but my ATA takes care of dialling local numbers without area code.

 TL> So I would have to slightly tweak the translation tables, if I started
 TL> a POTS line.

I dropped POTS over five years ago never missed it.


Cheers, Michiel

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