The Old Folks Home

[unclevlad]

On 10/4/2024 at 8:47 PM, Old Man said:

Long distance phone calls cost money.  A lot of money.

 

Actually, I remember when calls outside your *prefix*...or at best, a tiny group of prefixes...cost money.  Yeah, making a call to a number 10 miles away might get charged, if it was in the wrong direction.

And for that matter...when all of LA County was still 1 area code.  

From a history article:

Oct. 1947	213	All of Los Angeles County (and all of the southern third of California)
1957	805	Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, Northern L.A. County (formerly part of 213)
Jan. 7, 1984	818	San Gabriel Valley, San Fernando Valley (formerly part of 213)

 

 

Now?  10.

https://www.laalmanac.com/communications/cm01a.php

 

Ah, here's more detail...they were exchanges back then.  

https://www.laalmanac.com/communications/cm01e.php

 

I remember the maps of the zone maps...in your zone, maybe 1 or 2 adjacent zones were free, then the charges varied by the number of zones.  Pretty sure this was true well into the 60s.

[Ternaugh]

7 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

Actually, I remember when calls outside your *prefix*...or at best, a tiny group of prefixes...cost money.  Yeah, making a call to a number 10 miles away might get charged, if it was in the wrong direction.

And for that matter...when all of LA County was still 1 area code.  

From a history article:

Oct. 1947	213	All of Los Angeles County (and all of the southern third of California)
1957	805	Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, Northern L.A. County (formerly part of 213)
Jan. 7, 1984	818	San Gabriel Valley, San Fernando Valley (formerly part of 213)

 

 

Now?  10.

https://www.laalmanac.com/communications/cm01a.php

 

Ah, here's more detail...they were exchanges back then.  

https://www.laalmanac.com/communications/cm01e.php

 

I remember the maps of the zone maps...in your zone, maybe 1 or 2 adjacent zones were free, then the charges varied by the number of zones.  Pretty sure this was true well into the 60s.

 

Intrastate long distance is still a thing for some landlines using traditional carriers.

 

As for the massive increase in phone area codes, Nevada has gone from one to three (702 created in 1947, 775 in 1998, and 725 in 2014). While population growth is a factor, cell phone adoption and IoT devices needing a connection to "phone home" are bigger drivers now.