Too Many Area Codes!

Actually, I like it this way, somewhat.
each region in South Carolina getting it's own area code,
rather than an overlay or split of a region.
and for that, it doesn't really confuse me,

843 (Beaches / Lowcountry), 803 (Midlands), 864 (Upstate),
as long as you know where the city is in SC that you're calling,
you'd automatically know the area code!

The county I live in (Cherokee County, 864), borders 5 counties, with 3 different area codes:
Spartanburg & Union County, SC (864)
York County, SC (803)
Rutherford County, NC (828)
Cleveland County, NC (704)

 

Also, for those who don't have long distance calling in Southern California,
I wonder how big the local calling area is...the entire LA Basin, or just you're area code, or city?

In the Toms River NJ area (where I'm originally from, 732 area code)
my local calling area was only most of Ocean County, From Lakewood & Point Pleasant to Barnegat & Manahawkin.

In the Las Vegas area, the entire LV Valley was local, plus Boulder City.

Now where I live, the local calling area is just Gaffney & Blacksburg, SC.
Cowpens (Spartanburg County) is just down my street 1 mile, and it's considered long distance.

 

Technology can be grand at times

Atlanta has one of the largest toll free calling areas in the country when calling from a land line. It's roughly 100 miles long and wide and everyone in it can call each other for free. Its sweet being able to call someone who is that far away from a house phone.

Tallahassee, in contrast, local area is about 90 miles wide and 40 long... Tallahassee can call most points... And each county can call that county and Tallahassee for free. It's weird here... Or I'm weird. It sucks not having long distance here... Can't call across the state line without it. Glad I have my cell phones!

 

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D062; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

oklahoma used to have 2. one for tulsa and one for okc. now there's 3. there's one for the state, minus tulsa and okc. mol.

 

It's distance-based. Within 12 miles from the centre of your exchange is free; 13-19 miles is "Zone 3" and is a very small toll; 20+ miles is toll. As long as you don't cross the LATA lines (the Los Angeles LATA is all of the 213, 310, 323, 424, 562, 626, 714, 747, 818, 909, 949 and 951 area codes, as well as part of the 442, 661, 760 and 805 area codes) it's not long distance, just a local toll call, so if you don't have long distance you can still call about 15 million people.

In New Jersey it works the same way, sort of -- there were three LATAS: one for the west half of the 609 (now 856), one for the east half of the 609 (now just 609), and one for North and Central Jersey (formerly 201, then 201+908, now 201+732+908+973 plus the overlay codes). So calling from Toms River to Newark was toll but not long distance.

Stupidly, though I could launch a rock in a catapult from Woodbridge (where I grew up) to Staten Island, Staten Island was a long-distance telephone call because it was in New York -- but I could call Newark for free, which was 12 miles away. My first cell phone from NYNEX Mobile allowed me to make free long-distance calls within the region, which included all of North Jersey, New York City, Westchester, the Southern Tier, and part of Connecticut.

 

Area codes in South Carolina (864, 803, 843), Western NC (828), & Knoxville TN (865)
cover about 5.5 million people, and this area of the country has many newcomers from NJ/NY,
so we will definitely need to split or overlay soon, my guess is that 864 will be the 1st to split again,
the Upstate, just between Charlotte & Atlanta has over 1.1 million people,
and that number is climbing fast, many new houses are going up in Greenville & Spartanburg, and right down the road from me.

That makes sense, but over here, many people (some without LD) goto and call Spartanburg (10 miles from my house),
and that's considered toll. Metro-Spartanburg has over 200,000 people.

I don't have to worry about it either, but many of my friends, from LV to NJ & SC don't have LD.
I guess because landline service has dramatically increased, up to $90/mo.
We have Vonage, with an added 609 number for Melissa,
but I don't even use the Vonage to call anyone, that's done with my Alltel phone.

My girlfriend Melissa, lives in New Egypt (Ocean County, NJ), doesn't have LD, and she can't even call Jackson
(Six Flags Great Adventure), only 5 miles away.
The phone company considers New Egypt under Burlington County, part of the Philly area.
So she can only call Cream Ridge, Allentown, Wrightstown, Browns Mills, Pemberton & McGuire AFB / Fort Dix locally.
Not even Trenton or Toms River (each 15 miles away).
Unlimited LD on her cell phone (T-Mobile), but the signal kinda sux in that part of NJ, unless you are on I-195.

 

There are different rules...even Comcast VOIP is sending cards in the mail advertising unlimited calling for 24.95 a month (introductory fee of course ) but what is in the fine print, is that is unlimited LOCAL calling only. Long distance is extra. Long distance? You are VOIP for crying out loud! :loony:
I have yet to find their rules on what they consider long distance.

Me...I don't worry about long distance anymore...I will never ever have a land line again to have to worry about landline companies "long distance" rules. I'm with you Mike....I have my Vonage line--no long distance, and my at&t cell phone with no long distance.

 

I never heard of a VOIP restricting calls to local ones, that's crazy! I have a cell phone only. I want a computer and high speed internet in my place, but I don't want all the bundles or add ons the cable and landline companies push on us... Its a lose lose for me, since naked dsl isn't offered by Embarq and comcast wants ~$60 for internet only... I may just give VZW the extra $15 and just use the phone as a modem when I get my computer. :rant:

Its strange how different regions implement local/long distance. For instance, I never heard of extended local calling until I got to Florida (first few calls are free, then each call is $0.25)... In Atlanta, the call is either local or long distance... No graduated charges there lol

 

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D062; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

so how many area codes are there? anyone know?

 

Quint101, does Embarq have 10 Mbps DSL in your area? We have it down in the southern part of the state and the speeds are usually between 9.7 to 9.9 Mbps down and 845 to 875 Kbps Up.

 

i'm not sure... On their site, for my address, they are advertising 3.0 Mb download... I don't know anyone who has it near me

 

Oh...they don't restrict the calls to local ones....they just charge you for all non-local calls!
Its just a scam.....show you the big price in the nice blue letters...and then in small print state its for local calling only, anything over is .05 cents per minute....at least that's what the new postcard I received today said....19.99 for 6 months in big blue....and then in small print, local calling and .05 cents a minute otherwise.

 

Ahh. Well if you do have it, we love their service and are very happy with it. We came from Comcast and they were horrible imho.

 

Yup, Vonage is #1 with VoIP

 

We've had a few changes in the state of Pennsylvania over the years, but in my area, not so much.

Where I live, everything used to be 215, Philadelphia and suburbs. Then they split us into 215 and 610. I got 610. Then they overlayed 215 with 267, and 610 with 484. Now to throw a curve ball in, they are going to overlay 215/267 with 445, and 610/484 with 835.

I'm glad it's all overlays, though, so no changing phone numbers!

 

Also, Delaware still only has 1 area code (302), and I don't see them getting a new one any time soon. They still dial 7 digits.