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A telephone number or phone number is a sequence of numbers used to call from one telephone line to another in a telephone network. A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit within the Industry) is a single-user circuit on a Telephone The public switched telephone network ( PSTN) is the network of the world's public circuit-switched Telephone networks in much the same way that the When telephone numbers were invented, they were short - as few as two or three digits - and were used by people to call a few neighbors. As phone systems have grown and interconnected to encompass the world, telephone numbers have grown longer and more complex, and in addition to telephones they now designate many other devices, such as computers and fax machines. Basic principle A traditional landline telephone system also known as "plain old telephone service" (POTS, commonly handles both signaling and audio information

The number contains the information necessary to identify uniquely the intended endpoint for the telephone call. A telephone call is a connection over a Telephone network between the Calling party and the Called party. Each such endpoint must have a unique number within the public switched telephone network. The public switched telephone network ( PSTN) is the network of the world's public circuit-switched Telephone networks in much the same way that the Most countries use fixed length numbers (for normal lines at least) and therefore the number of endpoints determines the necessary length of the telephone number. It is also possible for each subscriber to have a set of shorter numbers for the endpoints most often used. These "shorthand" or "speed calling" numbers are automatically translated to unique telephone numbers before the call can be connected. Some special services have their own short numbers (e. g. 9-1-1, 4-1-1, 9-9-9 and 1-1-2). 911 (usually pronounced "nine-one-one" is the Emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan (NANP This article discusses the telephone directory number 411. For the year 411 see 411. 999 is the United Kingdom 's and Ireland's official Emergency telephone number and Poland 's medical emergency number Many systems also allow calls within a local area to be made without dialing the local area code. A telephone numbering plan is a plan for allocating Telephone number ranges to countries regions areas and exchanges and to non-fixed telephone networks Example A phone number in North America will start with three numbers (918) which is the area code, followed by three more (555) and four more after that (1212)

Most telephone networks nowadays are interconnected in the international telephone network, where the format of telephone numbers is standardized by ITU-T in the recommendation E.164, which specifies that the entire number should be 15 digits or shorter, and begin with a country prefix. The public switched telephone network ( PSTN) is the network of the world's public circuit-switched Telephone networks in much the same way that the The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector ( ITU-T) coordinates standards for telecommunications on behalf of the International Telecommunication E164 is an ITU-T recommendation which defines the international public telecommunication Numbering plan used in the PSTN and some other data This is a list of country calling codes defined by ITU-T recommendation E For most countries, this is followed by an area code or city code and the subscriber number, which might consist of the code for a particular telephone switch. A telephone numbering plan is a plan for allocating Telephone number ranges to countries regions areas and exchanges and to non-fixed telephone networks In the field of Telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls ITU-T recommendation E.123 describes how to represent an international telephone number in writing or print, starting with a plus sign ("+") and the country code. The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector ( ITU-T) coordinates standards for telecommunications on behalf of the International Telecommunication ITU-T Recommendation E123, or the Notation for national and international telephone numbers Recommendation E When calling an international number from a fixed line phone, the + must be replaced with the international call prefix chosen by the country the call is being made from. Every country has both a country calling code used to dial into a country and an international call prefix or international access code used to dial out Mobile phones generally allow the + to be entered directly.

The format and allocation of local phone numbers are controlled by each nation's respective government, either directly or by sponsored organizations (such as NANPA overseen by NeuStar Inc.) See Telephone numbering plan. A telephone numbering plan is a plan for allocating Telephone number ranges to countries regions areas and exchanges and to non-fixed telephone networks NeuStar Inc ( is a provider of clearinghouse and directory services to the global communications and Internet industry A telephone numbering plan is a plan for allocating Telephone number ranges to countries regions areas and exchanges and to non-fixed telephone networks

Before a telephone call is connected, the telephone number must be dialed by the calling party or Caller. A telephone call is a connection over a Telephone network between the Calling party and the Called party. The calling party (also called caller, call originator or A-party) is a person who (or device that Initiates a Telephone call over The called party might have equipment that presents caller ID before the call is answered. The called party is a person who (or device that answers a Telephone call. For the protein involved in the synthesis of Major histocompatibility complex II see CLIP (protein.

Contents

Business phones

Businesses in the middle 20th century and earlier had a single telephone number for the main telephone switchboard of that business. A switchboard (also called a manual exchange) was a device used to connect a group of Telephones manually to one another or to an outside connection within and between A switchboard operator would connect the call within the business. Medium-to-large organizations often employ switchboard operators &mdashspecialised staff who answer general Telephone calls to the organization and usually maintain If the called party didn't answer, the caller was typically transferred back to the switchboard. With voicemail and more technology, businesses now use Direct Inward Dialing (DID) (Direct Dialling Inwards (DDI) in the UK) lines so that outside callers can call to a specific person in a business. Direct Inward Dialing (DID, also called Direct Dial-In (DDI in Europe is a feature offered by telephone companies for use with their customers' PBX systems Often, the DID number uses a pattern from the called party's telephone internal extension. For example, within the Acme Corporation, a caller may dial 225 to reach Mr. The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that exists in several Cartoons, Films and TV series, most significantly in the Looney Tunes universe Smith, but an outside caller may dial 448-9225 to reach Mr. Smith (with the last three digits representing Mr. Smith's extension). Some companies arrange their dial plan to restrict the DDI capability to certain parts of the PABX or Centrex numbering range: Mr Smith on 225 might have it, but Mr Jones on 374 or Mr Brown on 427 would not. A dial plan establishes the expected number and pattern of digits for a Telephone number. Centrex is a contraction of centr al ex change a kind of Telephone exchange. If a merger has happened in the past there may even be different exchange codes mapping to different parts of the internal numbering range. DID became an important feature of Centrex. Centrex is a contraction of centr al ex change a kind of Telephone exchange.

Some companies have a sufficient need for internal extensions that the whole numbering range following the exchange code () represents company extensions. A real example of this in the UK is the former Post Office's headquarters in Central London: the PABX was made an end node exchange in the London Director area, with the code 432. A private branch exchange (PBX is a Telephone exchange that serves a particular business or office as opposed to one that a Common carrier or telephone company The Director System was a system which made it possible to call subscribers at other Telephone exchanges without operator intervention The automanual board was given the extension number 1234, so in the days before all-figure numbering outside callers reached the switchboard by dialing HEAdquarters 1234. The White House in Washington, DC is another example, having the (202)456 exchange. See also Executive Office of the President of the United States The White House, formerly known as the Executive Mansion, is the Official residence Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D

History

In the late 1870s the Bell interests started exploiting their patent with a rental scheme, in which they would rent their instruments to individual users who would contract with other suppliers to connect them, for example from home to office to factory. Before proposing a merge request please see Talk and see if the merger you propose has recently been made and Western Union and the Bell company both soon realized that a subscription service would be more profitable, with the invention of the telephone switchboard or central office. The Western Union Company ( is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. The subscription business model is a Business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service A switchboard (also called a manual exchange) was a device used to connect a group of Telephones manually to one another or to an outside connection within and between In the field of Telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls Such an office was staffed by an operator who connected the calls by personal names. A telephone operator is either a person who provides assistance to a Telephone caller usually in the placing of Operator assisted telephone

The latter part of 1879 and the early part of 1880 saw the first use of telephone numbers at Lowell, Massachusetts. Year 1879 ( MDCCCLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1880 ( MDCCCLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Lowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. As of the 2000 census the city had a total population of 105167 During an epidemic of measles, Dr. Moses Greeley Parker feared that Lowell's four telephone operators might succumb and bring about a paralysis of telephone service. He recommended the use of numbers for calling Lowell's more than 200 subscribers so that substitute operators might be more easily trained in the event of such an emergency. Parker was convinced of the telephone's potential, began buying stock, and by 1883 he was one of the largest individual stockholders in both the American Telephone Company and the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company. The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company was the first company set up to develop the then-new telephone

Even after the assignment of numbers, operators still connected most calls into the early 20th century; "Hello Central, get me Underwood-342. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on " Connecting through operators or "Central" was usual until mechanical dialing of numbers became more common in the 1920s. The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada

In rural areas with magneto crank telephones connected to party lines, the local phone number consisted of the line number plus the ringing pattern of the subscriber. Ringdown: In Telephony, a method of signaling an operator in which Telephone ringing current is sent over the line to operate a lamp or cause In 20th century Telephone systems a party line (also multiparty line or Shared Service Line) is an arrangement in which two or more customers are To dial a number such as "3R122" meant making a request to the operator the third party line (if making a call off your own local one), followed by turning the telephone's crank once, a short pause, then twice and twice again. Also common was a code of long and short rings, so one party's call might be signalled by two longs and anothers' by two longs followed by a short. [1] It was not uncommon to have over a dozen ringing pattern (and subscribers) on one line.

In North America, the digits 2–9 of phone numbers were allotted 3 letters of the alphabet apiece. This left room for only 24 letters, so the uncommon letters Q and Z were omitted. In the UK, the letters O and Q were allocated to the digit 0, to reduce caller confusion among similar characters; digit 6 had only M and N, and digit 7 had P, R and S. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located

Phone numbers were not usually strictly numeric until the 1950s. The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive From the 1920s until then, most urban areas had "exchanges" of two letters, followed by numbers. The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada During the early years of Telephone service communities that required more than 10000 Telephone numbers whether dial service was available or not utilized exchange names to In the UK, however, exchanges in the major cities with Director installations were represented by three letters followed by four numbers; the letters usually represented the name of the exchange area (e. The Director System was a system which made it possible to call subscribers at other Telephone exchanges without operator intervention g. MAYfair, WATerloo), or something memorable about the locality (e. g. POPesgrove — an area where Alexander Pope once lived). This was considered easier to remember, although in London in the later part of this period it required the memorization of 7 characters (roughly the same number of characters as is usual for local calling in 2008). 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common A word would represent the first two digits to be dialed, for example "TWinbrook" for "89" ; "BYwater" for "29". UK numbers had no letters at all except for those in the Director areas, where the first three of the seven digits were assigned letters, and written "ABBey 1234" or "WHItehall 1212", for example. A lack of pronounceable words, and the fact that most telephones world-wide have no letters on anyway, have led to the abandonment of letter usage in directory numbers except for publicity purposes.

The use of numbers starting in 555- (KLondike-5) to represent fictional numbers in U. In North America, Telephone numbers with the prefix 555 are widely used for Fictitious telephone numbers in Television shows Films S. movies, television, and literature originated in this period. The "555" prefix was reserved for telco use and was only consistently used for Directory Assistance (Information), being "555-1212" for the local area. An attempt to dial a 555 number from a movie in the real world will always result in an error message (in the U. S. A. , at least). This eliminates the likelihood of nuisance calls.

Phone numbers were traditionally tied down to a single location; because exchanges were "hard-wired", the first 3 digits of any number were tied to the geographic location of the exchange. Modern exchanges are actually computers which are much more flexible and could be programmed to accept any prefix. Similarly, mobile phones do not have these constraints, being interfaced to the Public Switched network through a gateway which can be programmed however the provider wants it.

Alphanumeric trivia

Because the switches were hard-wired together and fairly hard to re-wire (or re-grade), telephone exchange buildings in many larger cities, in North America, were dedicated to circuits that began with the first two or three digits of the standard 7 digit phone numbers. In a holdover from the days of plug-board exchanges, the exchanges were typically named with a name whose first two letters translated to the digits of the exchange's prefix on a common telephone dial. Examples: CAstle (22), TRinity (87), MUtual (68). Certain number combinations were not amenable to this naming process, such as "57," "95" and "97;" it was in part due to this factor that telephone exchange names were eventually abandoned, as more numbers were needed to prevent a given area code from running out of available numbers. During the early years of Telephone service communities that required more than 10000 Telephone numbers whether dial service was available or not utilized exchange names to A telephone numbering plan is a plan for allocating Telephone number ranges to countries regions areas and exchanges and to non-fixed telephone networks

In the past, the first two or three digits would map to a mnemonic exchange name, e. g. 869‒1234 was formerly TOwnsend 9‒1234, and before that (in some localities) might have been TOWnsend 1234 (only the capital letters and numbers being dialed).

In December of 1930, New York City became the first locality in the United States to adopt the two-letter, five-number format; it remained alone in this respect until well after World War II, when other municipalities across the country began to follow suit. The City of New York The United States of America —commonly referred to as the World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including From the 1920s through the 1950s, most larger U. S. cities used the Bell System standard format of two letters which began the exchange name followed by four numbers, as in DUnkirk 0799. Prior to the mid-1950s, the number immediately following the name could never be a "0" or "1;" indeed, "0" was never pressed into service at all, except in the immediate Los Angeles area (the "BEnsonhurst 0" exchange mentioned in an episode of the popular TV sitcom The Honeymooners was fictitious). Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West The Honeymooners debuted as a half-hour series on October 1 1955.

In 1955, the Bell System attempted to standardize the process of naming exchanges by issuing a "recommended list" of names to be used for the various number combinations. The Bell System which was named for Alexander Graham Bell, the technologist popularly credited with the invention of the Telephone, was a Trademark and In 1961, New York Telephone introduced "selected-letter" exchanges, in which the two letters did not mark the start of any particular name (example: FL 6-9970), and by 1965 all newly-connected phone numbers nationwide consisted of numerals only (Wichita Falls, Texas had been the first locality in the United States to implement the latter, having done so in 1958). Wichita Falls is a city in the state of Texas and the County seat of Wichita County Texas, United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Pre-existing numbers continued to be displayed the old way in many places well into the 1970s. A Chicago carpet retailer frequently advertised their number NAtional 2-9000 on WGN until the 1990s; not to mention, the number TYler 8-7100 for a Detroit construction company, as well as another Chicago business, a carpet cleaning service, using HUdson 3-2700. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. Radio Cab Co. in Portland, Oregon, still lists their number as CA7-1212 in several places on their garage. Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the Confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers A construction company in Philadelphia, James D. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Morrissey, Inc. , still lists DA3-8000 as their phone number on most of their dump trucks as of June 2008. International holidays and commemorations June 8 - Dragon Boat Festival ( Traditional Chinese) June 9 - Shavuot

Most of the United Kingdom had no lettered telephone dials until the introduction of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) in 1958. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Subscriber trunk dialling ( STD, also known as subscriber toll dialling) is a term for the UK Telephone system allowing subscribers to dial trunk Prior to that time, only the director areas (Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester) and the non-director areas adjacent to them had lettered dials, and the director exchanges used the three-letter, four-number format. The Director System was a system which made it possible to call subscribers at other Telephone exchanges without operator intervention With the introduction of STD, the need for all callers to be able to dial numbers with letters in them led to the much more widespread use of lettered dials. The need for dials with letters was finally abandoned with the conversion to all-figure numbering in 1968.

Because the pulses from a rotary dial (as used to operate switches in a Strowger exchange) took time, having a phone number with lots of 8s or 9s or 0s meant it took longer to dial. The rotary dial is a device mounted on or in a Telephone or switchboard that is designed to send interrupted electrical pulses, known as Pulse dialing The Strowger switch, also known as Step-by-Step or SXS, is an early electromechanical telephone switching system invented by Almon Brown Strowger. The phone companies typically assigned such "high" numbers to pay phones because they were rarely dialed to.

To test the basic functioning of all of the switches in a chain, a special "test" number was reserved that consisted of all 5s (555‒5555) — half-way up and in on each bank. The "555" (or Klondike) exchange was never assigned any real numbers (with limited exceptions such as 555-1212 for directory assistance), which is why today's TV and movie shows use 555-xxxx numbers for their phone numbers (previously, such productions often used numbers that ended in certain four-number combinations that were typically set aside for similar uses — "0079" on the West Coast and "9970" in many other places; examples include the TV series Perry Mason and the 1948 film Sorry, Wrong Number). In North America, Telephone numbers with the prefix 555 are widely used for Fictitious telephone numbers in Television shows Films In Telecommunications, directory assistance or directory enquiries is a phone service used to find out a specific Telephone number and / or address Perry Mason is an Emmy -winning American TV series that ran from 1957 to 1966. Sorry Wrong Number is a 1948 Suspense film which tells the story of a woman who overhears a plot for Murder. That way there was no possibility that a fake number from a show would actually reach someone, thus avoiding the scenario which arose in 1982 with Tommy Tutone's hit single "867-5309/Jenny", which led to many customers who actually had that number receiving a plethora of unwanted calls. Tommy Tutone is a Powerpop / rock band, best known for its 1982 hit " 867-5309/Jenny " which peaked at #4 on the Billboard " 867-5309/Jenny " is a song written by Alex Call and Jim Keller and performed by Tommy Tutone that was released on the album Tommy Tutone In fact, many US phone companies either no longer assign this number, or have relegated it to internal testing purposes.

However, today only numbers beginning with 555‒01xx are reserved for fiction and other 555-numbers can be allocated to "information providers". A side effect of the fictional-number pool being reduced to 100 numbers is that the same ones now often recur in different movies or TV shows. The "958" and "959" exchanges have also been reserved for similar purposes in most localities, and as a result very few individuals or businesses have telephone numbers beginning with those sets of digits either (although this fact is not as well known, so such numbers have not been used in a fictional context).

The number in the Glenn Miller Orchestra's hit "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" was and is the number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. The Glenn Miller Orchestra was originally formed in 1937 by Glenn Miller. PEnnsylvania 6-5000 is said to be the oldest continuing phone number in New York City, The Hotel Pennsylvania is a Hotel located at 401 7th Avenue in Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden The City of New York If you call the number, now written as (212) 736-5000, you still get the hotel.

Numeric trivia

One of the most expensive phone numbers in the world is 666-6666 which was sold for USD$2. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been 75 million in Doha, Qatar as part of a charity event in 2006. Doha (الدوحة or Ad-Dōḥah) is the Capital city of Qatar. Qatar ( قطر; ˈqɑtˁɑr local pronunciation giṭar officially the State of Qatar (Arabic دولة قطر transliterated

Another is 888-8888, which was sold for USD$270,723 in Chengdu, China. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been ( located in southwest People's Republic of China, is the capital of Sichuan province and a Sub-provincial city. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National 8 is traditionally considered a lucky number in Chinese culture. In mathematics 8 is a Composite number, its Proper divisors being 1, 2, and 4. In Chinese culture, certain numbers are believed by some to be auspicious (吉利 or inauspicious (不利 based on the Chinese word that the number name sounds similar to

Computer industry pioneer Steve Wozniak, a collector of phone numbers, obtained the phone number 888-8888, but it proved unusable: Children playing with phones would dial it, resulting in more than a hundred wrong numbers a day. [2]

In Quebec, the Journal de Montréal newspaper has been using the 888-8888 phone number for a few years for its classifieds section. Quebec (kwɨˈbɛk There is a word game in French between this number and "vite, vite, vite, vite, vite, vite, vite" for "fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast". ("Vite" (fast) and "Huit" (eight) sound similar. ) It is now mandatory to dial the area code first, so the number is now 514-888-8888. A telephone numbering plan is a plan for allocating Telephone number ranges to countries regions areas and exchanges and to non-fixed telephone networks

Intercepted number

In the middle 20th century when a call could not be completed, for example because the phone number was not assigned, had been disconnected, or was in trouble, it went to an intercept operator who informed the caller. In the 1970s this service was converted to Automatic Intercept Systems which automatically chooses and presents an appropriate intercept message. An intercept message is a Telephone recording informing the caller that the dialed number is currently not assigned to any customer Disconnected numbers may be reassigned after the rate of calls to them declines.

References

  1. ^ [1]"Electricity and Magnetism; Principles of Telephony; Subscribers' Station . . . " By International Correspondence Schools,1916, page 20. Retrieved May 27,2008

See also

External links

Dictionary

telephone number

-noun

  1. The sequence of digits used to identify a particular destination telephone in a network.
  2. (in plural) A large number.
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