Direct Dial America: The North American Numbering Plan
AT&T and Bell Labs rolled out the North American Numbering Plan on November 10, 1951, introducing area codes that enabled customers to dial long-distance calls directly without going through an operator. The system assigned three-digit area codes to every region in the United States and Canada. The most populous areas received codes that were fastest to dial on rotary phones: New York City got 212 (shortest pull distances), Los Angeles got 213. Before the plan, placing a long-distance call required telling an operator the city, exchange name, and number, then waiting while she connected the circuits manually. A coast-to-coast call could take 20 minutes to set up. Direct dialing made it instantaneous. The plan also standardized the seven-digit local number format and the country code system still used today.
November 10, 1951
75 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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