telephone numbers

[SpikeyBush]

How come the whole of the USA & Canada get by on 10-digit telephone numbers when this wasn't enough for the UK and we have to have 11?

[DTCwordfan]

I would have thought we would have got by on 10 bln minus 1 phone lines and not needed 100 bln minus 1

[deggers316]

in the great scheme of things.....does it matter ?

[David H]

Because unlike the UK the US has the same system countrywide, and is so mathematically efficient it also includes Canada and the West Indies. If we had had all the country using a three digit local number and four digit exchange number with a three digit area code prefix. As the Americans tend to work as a unified machine with national policies rather than let things grow at a local level organically we have had to adapt to local numbers from three to six digits, and even then instead of unifying them to all be the same (they did begin to with the old ten digit harmonisation which had four digit area and six digit local codes), before that covered the smallest exchanges had already brought in seven and then eight digit local codes depending simply on what was needed at that particular time in that area, with absolutely no regard to what happened elsewhere. That I'm sad to say is the exact opposite of forward planning.

The US actually have an 11 digit system now as US residents have to add a 1 to make a long distance call but again that is the same for everyone so hardly an inconvenience.