*-* On Thu, 3 Jul 2008, at 21:03:11 +0000,
*-* In Article g4jeqf$10fk$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brian Harvey wrote
*-* About Re: Telephone Number Songs
> "Lumpy" <lumpy@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>> Note that the prefixes AT and CU are both the same numbers "28".
>> But the billing was still tied to the alpha exchanges AT or CU.
> The exchange was the first three digits, whether they were expressed
> as digits or letters. In the early days they chose exchange codes
> that made sense as three-letter prefixes, e.g., ATL(antic) = 285.
> But as the demand for telephones grew, they ran out of those, so
> (without actually changing anything in the equipment) they renamed
> ATL as AT5 (ATlantic 5), so that they could also use AT2, AT3, etc.,
> even if those numeric codes didn't have meaningful three-letter
> representations.
That makes sense, and it's the same reasoning that eventually led
to the dropping of letters entirely, in favor of all-numeric exchange
designations.
Ken Whiton
FIDO: 1:132/152
InterNet: kenwhiton@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(remove the obvious to reply)
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