PLA Forums
Other Stuff That Has Little To Do With PLA => Phones in the News => Topic started by: rbcp on April 05, 2006, 07:32:57 AM
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As cell phones take over the world, what's to become of the area code? Are they on their way out -- or are they clues to who we are?
from this page (http://www.pdxguide.com/marketplace/moneyNews/ASAP03292006moneyandgadgets2538.cfm)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Rappers shout them and phone companies tout them. They're those three little digits before actual phone numbers: the area code.
There was a time when the code had territorial cred -- 212 is synonymous with New York City, 312 is Chicago, 213 is Los Angeles. But now major metropolitan areas can have a half-dozen or more area codes -- and even those have become portable. Few people change their cell phone numbers as they move around the country.
Experts say with all the area code splitting, those little prefixes are losing their old meaning, fast. But have they gained a new meaning? Say, a personal one?
Hank Willenbrink, a 24-year-old graduate student in theater at the University of California in Santa Barbara, roams around the area code-heavy West Coast with his hometown 502 from Louisville, Ky.
"People are so mobile that the area code has now become a statement about where you're from, rather than where you're going or where you are," he said.
It doesn't matter where someone lives, you can still be from your hometown via your cell phone, says Andy Kavoori, editor of "The Cell Phone Reader: Essays in Social Transformation" and a University of Georgia communications professor.
"As the global economy changes you need new ways to identity where you're from," he said. "And the area code number is one of those ways. It creates psychological affiliations in place of physical ones."
Paul Levinson, author of "Cell Phone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium", says the area code will soon bleed into the rest of a person's phone number to act as a sort of numerical social identifier.
"We're well on the way to people having permanent phone numbers associated with their name like Social Security numbers are, that will be a more permanent indicator," Levinson said.
A BIT OF HISTORY:
Phone numbers used to start with two letters, going back decades before area codes were even developed, but then the phone companies switched to three-digit numerical codes and had them directly relate to places, Levinson said.
"They did research to what the most easiest remembered numbers were," he said. "New York got 212. Los Angeles got 213 that was the next easiest, from there it went on. Then what happened was the demand for phone service was growing at such a rate the phone company began dividing up other old area codes which did have meaning into new area codes."
"That was the beginning of the end," he said.
CONVENIENCE:
The wireless era meant a boom in new codes as people picked up second numbers. But it also meant those area codes were no longer tied to the area in question.
Jamie Lippman, 27, moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Bloomington, Ind., for a job as a first grade teacher and kept her 347 Brooklyn area code instead of switching. Lippman didn't want to make everyone in her life take down her new number, and having the local 812 didn't mean much, because she hardly makes any local calls.
"To me it doesn't make a difference at all -- every call is the same," Lippman said. "Everyone knows this number and I have friends all over the country and my family are all over the country. Everyone calling me is long distance anyway."
For her, area codes are caller ID, like when another Brooklyn friend now living in Bloomington calls -- one Brooklyn number dialing another Brooklyn number in the middle of Indiana. Lippman knows that 347 is Brooklyn. But would anyone else outside of New York? Even there, the number is eclipsed by Brooklyn's better-known 718 and Manhattan's 212, 646 and 917.
She thinks for a minute.
"No one knows where 347 is," she answers.
SENTIMENTAL VALUE:
LaKeasha Batiste, 26, moved to Tampa, Fla., from Louisiana three years ago, but is keeping her 504 New Orleans area code. No way is she changing to Tampa's 727 -- especially after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.
Some area codes can be a matter of pride, the health care analyst says.
"It's my connection to home in a lot of ways," she said. "They'll see my 504 area code. They'll associate. I won't give up my 504 area code, no matter where I live."
She got stubborn when switching cell phone companies from T-Mobile to Sprint.
"I told them if I couldn't keep my number, I wouldn't give my service to them," she said.
A DIGIT APART
Willenbrink said he gets weird looks when he gives out the 502 in California.
"I've discovered that no one actually knows where 502 is," he said. "They say, 'It's 502 -- that's East Bay.' And I'm like, 'It's Louisville, Kentucky.' They're like, 'Oh. Cool.' Because California is this sea of area codes."
He's not switching, though: "It's sort of this weird nostalgic tie to my former state."
But he ponders whether getting rid of your area code can mean just as much.
"There's also this whole idea of shedding an identity too," he said. "I'm sure there are people who move from Kentucky to California and get a new phone number because they want to lose that part of themselves."
Oh and Batiste? He's with you -- don't change your New Orleans area code to Tampa's boring 727 -- even though he didn't recognize where 504 would be.
Willenbrink's first thought at Tampa's digits: "727's a jet," he says. "Like a 747 or whatever."
Some numbers just have a better ring to them.
The North American Numbering Plan Association offers a map of area codes nationwide here:
http://www.nanpa.com/area_code_maps/ac_map_static.html
asap reporter Caryn Rousseau keeps her 501 even though she lives in the 816.
(I love the ending there...this reporter lady is actually proud to be from Arkansas. Tee hee.)
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I'm living in 913 despite having my cellphone in the 516. 516 > 913, obviously.
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Then why do you live in 913? HUH? You not > enough for New York?
I was going to keep my 618 cell phone number when I moved to Oregon, just because I'd owned it for 6 or 7 years and I hated to change my number. But then decided fuck it, I don't care about it that much. Plus, it allowed me to effectively ditch a bunch of old friends.
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They have 312 beer over here.
(http://www.gooseisland.com/beers/pop-ups/images/312_left.jpg)
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901 repazent main
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I envision mgross leaving Chicago some day, and pouring a bottle of 312 on the grave of his old area code.
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714 rules all others suck. It's just that simple.
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Why the fuck would anyone be proud of their area code? This is like the illegals waving the Mexican flag.
I REALLY don't know why anyone would be proud of 502 / Louisville. New Orleans is 504 + it was always annoying trying to keep this straight when my lawyer friends came up to visit... people leave off the code thinking it's local but it's necessary! I found out New Orleans was 504 the hard way...
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714 rules all others suck. It's just that simple.
Man I hope FOX someday makes a shitty TV show about my hometown so I'll have a reason to feel superior and brag about it on message boards...
The I'll show you all!
PS: that 312 beer isn't bad. Goose Island is one of the best microbrewers in the Midwest!
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To be honest I have never watched one episode of the OC. I am not "bragging" about it I just keep using it because of PLA radio episode 8.
EDIT: From now on I am telling everybody I am from Canada.
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Oh OK.
I knew there HAD to be some kind of a reason.
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Tampa is 813, not 727. The swamp rat doesn't know where she is.
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312 beer is slow filtered with Chicago earth... a real taste of Chicago from the Cal-Sag channel.
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905 p0wnz all u ppl (hamilton, ontario) My own mediocre attempt at humor has been highly amusing to myself.
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i was the 206 for awhile, and then we went 360. there are a lot of ho's in the 360.
and there is also a lot of sales tax. 8.1% represent
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778, baby!
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Bringing this old post to life again... 805, 661, 602 & 623 here baby 8)
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714 rules all others suck. It's just that simple.
The OC!
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714 rules all others suck. It's just that simple.
The OC!
I'm actually in the 949 now, moved. It is still OC, though. But the hick part of OC (Irvine). OC is starting to suck now that I'm in Irvine, I can't drive to the beach in 3 minutes anymore. It smells bad, everybody wears Jeans, horse poop is everywhere, I hate it. I loved Buena Park, I hate Irvine. I hate the OC!
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what should people be wearing instead of jeans?
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what should people be wearing instead of jeans?
Shorts like everybody does in Newport and all thoes cool cities. Dickies are big there.
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what should people be wearing instead of jeans?
Shorts like everybody does in Newport and all thoes cool cities. Dickies are big there.
Shorts are for sissies.
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Shorts are for sissies.
Or people not in the OC.
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714 rules all others suck. It's just that simple.
The OC!
I'm actually in the 949 now, moved. It is still OC, though. But the hick part of OC (Irvine). OC is starting to suck now that I'm in Irvine, I can't drive to the beach in 3 minutes anymore. It smells bad, everybody wears Jeans, horse poop is everywhere, I hate it. I loved Buena Park, I hate Irvine. I hate the OC!
Did you go to Western HS? I think Tiger Woods went there....
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907 and 808 bitches.
P4nyk
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Formerly 414 and now 920. It's weird, because 414 is technically Milwaukee yet only a tiny ass part of the city has that area code. It's almost unused, since we really only use it for one county. But I suppose that's also what happens when one city/area spills over several counties.
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It's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land".
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519 w00t w00t
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back in the 701 again
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It's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land".
I was not aware of that.
back in the 701 again
Yauch is such a better man than all of us. He's visited Roy, New Mexico and has the pictures to prove it.
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Yauch once had an entire forum category named after him. And it was good.
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It's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land".
And it totally lives up to the name.... :-[
Actually, the area surrounding the city (Waukesha County, New Berlin, Mukwuanago, etc) is a very beautiful area, still full of foliage and little creeks, and not overly urban. I love and fucking hate the city and surrounding area at the same time.
Have you ever come to beer county, murd0c? If you ever wanted to, I could put you up (I live an hour or two away) and get you shot in one of the most racially polarized places I've ever been in.
Actually, that goes for anyone. PM me if you're ever coming through WI. I'll get ya drunk, or at least provide a couch you can crash on.