By Jack Spencer

Depending on the amount of time that you have been using the telephone, you might be fascinated to learn a little bit of history about it. I'm not necessarily talking about going all the way back to Alexander Graham Bell but I am referring to the fact that the telephone has really changed quite a bit in recent history.

Most of us are familiar with computers but it wasn't all that long ago that computers were not available and the entire telephone system was operated manually. Operators would answer the telephone calls that were coming in, find out the place where they were heading out and then manually plug them into a large switch board which was in front of them. Although this system worked well for a while, it eventually needed to be upgraded which is why the telephone company made its next move.

The 10 digit telephone system came into existence during this time, and it is one that we are still familiar with using today. The computers that are at the telephone company are able to use the various parts of this 10 digit number in order to route the calls effectively and without delay. By recognizing where the number is coming from and where it is going, it is not necessary to manually plug-in switches any longer.

The first three digits that you use whenever you are dialing a telephone number are routed to various areas of the country. Whenever the 10 digit system first came into place, these three digit numbers were assigned to specific areas, and therefore became known as area codes. At the time whenever they were first used, they seem to be in limitless supply but now they are being used up rather quickly.

The second three digits in the telephone number are more of a localized number which can help you to break down where a telephone call is coming from or going to. Inside each area code, the possibility of 999 different numerical combinations allowed for a wide diversity and a narrow coverage for each of those numbers.

Something else that took place in recent years that was rather interesting is the change from a rotary dial system to a pushbutton dial system. Unless you can remember 40 years ago or so, you may not even know that that was a rotary system in place. Instead of pushing numbers and hearing a tone, you would turn the numbers and allow it to go back, the clicks counting off the numbers to the telephone company.

We have moved quite a bit away from the house phone now and many of us are exclusively using cellular telephones in order to place all of our calls. The fax machine is also becoming increasingly popular and as a result, more and more area codes are being used up regularly. Even though it wasn't all that many years ago that we didn't carry cell phones around, most of us could not imagine that day ever coming again.

As we continue to push on in the future, it's difficult to tell where the telephone company and technology is going to take us. Until that time, however, the simple area code in 10 digit telephone number will continue to be something that we can use to our benefit.

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