in19601960

19201920

1 2 3Originally, phone numbers had one, two or three digits only.

the

OF

Central, pleaseconnect me to... Hello

HiJohn

11 22 33

feared the town’s 4 operators would become ill and suggested numbers be assigned to the 200+ telephone subscribers so that temps could be trained more easily.

in

Lowell,

Massachusetts

& can be attributed to the measles epidemic.

Mechanical direct-dialing of numbers became the norm.

Previously, most urban areas had “exchanges” of two letters, followed by numbers.

TO-5623

Exchanges became the first 2 digits of the phone number and were tied to a specific geographic location. These are now known as area codes.

5 6 2 368

45

6203

Michael Corleone asks an operator to connect him with Long Beach 4-5620, presumably the number for the main house on the Corleone compound.

telephone numbers were invented, they were short & were given orally to a switchboard operator.

1997199719931993

1982198219671967

A toll-free service was introduced in the United States by AT&T as an alternative to collect calling and to reduce the need for operators.

Forever ingrained in our hearts and mostly our minds, this song led to many customers who actually had that number receiving a plethora of unwanted calls.

Tommy Tutone released the hit song "867-5309/Jenny".

867-5309/Jenny

This meant that toll-free numbers are not associated with a particular telephone carrier such as AT&T or MCI.

800800

FCC mandated 800-number portability.

First FCC mandated Local Number Portability among wireline carriers.

559

20082008

Calls placed to these hosted phone numbers are seamlessly forwarded to any existing number.