TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Question About NXX Exchange Numbers: Are They Geographic Areas?

Re: Question About NXX Exchange Numbers: Are They Geographic Areas?

Rick Merrill (rick0.merrill@NOSPAM.gmail.com)
Tue, 08 May 2007 16:11:02 -0400

Patrick E. Burns wrote:

> Mr. Dykstra,

> I happily found your on-line list of NPA/NXX's (area code plus exchanges)
> with some geographic information attached.

> I work for a non-profit which is just about to conduct a telephone
> survey of rental households in Los Angeles, and we are seeking maps
> (or mapable information) about telephone numbers. When we call renters
> (as well as smaller sample of apartment owners), we want to know if
> they fall in the City of Los Angeles or an adjacent community.

> My understanding is that telephone exchange numbers can represent
> geographic areas, similar to a ZIP code area or census tract. Is
> that the case?

No. Many people have ported their number to a cell phone. When they
move they take that number with them. Ok, that is true of some
percentage and that may be enough for your purpose. But to tell if a
given, single number is "somewhere" - don't count on it!

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But I think it would be fair to say
that although local number portability is possible, not that many
people have taken advantage of it; certainly not that far out of the
original area of the number. Having said that, now I suppose I will
hear about a New Yorker who took his 212 number to California or vice-
versa, but it is still relatively rare. PAT]

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