Temporary Free Toronto Library card

[issybird]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

In the US these days some people move to another location and don't change their cell phone number, so they might still have a New York area code in their phone number but actually live in California or whatever.

One of my digital cards verifies by IP, which seems more logical. As you say, people keep their numbers.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

That is also true here. I had assumed that it was true everywhere, since the whole point of these devices is that they are not geographically tied down. Perhaps it's a function of population size, I wonder if other large countries such as India and China follow the Nth American pattern?

Think about Brazil.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Think about Brazil.

Having many dear friends who are from there, I do, often, but I don't know how Brazil's cellphone numbers work.

[sun surfer]

I’m not sure about Canada, but in the US you don’t even have to move to end up living one place but having a cell/mobile from another. You can get a new phone number and request it to be from any US area code you wish. An area code represents a physical area, and once cells/mobiles came along some area codes were invented to overlap other areas to be cell/mobile area codes to complement landline area codes (for instance Manhattan was originally 212, and once cells/mobiles appeared they made 917 the cell/mobile Manhattan area code and left 212 the landline Manhattan area code).

It used to be enforced pretty strictly that when you got a cell/mobile you got the cell/mobile area code of where you were getting it at. But with people moving all over but wanting to keep their old number, or living in multiple places and getting a phone in one location but wanting the area code of the other, etc., the strictness was basically given up on completely and now you can request any area code, even originally landline area codes, for your cell/mobile. In general people will still have area codes corresponding to where they live since a lot of people don’t move around and also if they don’t request an area code then they’re assigned the one for their current location, but you can find people living anywhere in the US with all sorts of area codes now.

[Apache]

I have never heard of cell phones having separate area codes from landlines. Everyone in the area that I live in have the same area code whether it is a landline or a cellphone. I am not talking about area codes from other locations.
Apache

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Nor in mine. I learned something new today, that Nth American numbers are all tied to geographical area codes, whether landline or cell. Only landlines have area codes here, too.

One thing to keep in mind with cell numbers in the US, long distance is free with most major carriers, so people tend to keep their cell number as they move around rather than switch to a number in their geographic location. I know one guy who has a Connecticut cell number even though he's been living in Georgia for the last 5 years, and another who has a Texas cell number even though he's been in Georgia for a long time. So many times, the npa of a cell number reflects the geographic location of the person when they bought their first cell phone.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Apache

I have never heard of cell phones having separate area codes from landlines. Everyone in the area that I live in have the same area code whether it is a landline or a cellphone. I am not talking about area codes from other locations.
Apache

There's only one area code in my city/general area, but maybe large metropolitan areas have different area codes for cell or landlines?

In my area, cell phones usually have different prefixes from landline numbers though. (for those unfamiliar with US phone number formats, the prefix is the number after the area code - aaa-bbb-cccc - the bbb part is the prefix)

[Apache]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

There's only one area code in my city/general area, but maybe large metropolitan areas have different area codes for cell or landlines?

In my area, cell phones usually have different prefixes from landline numbers though. (for those unfamiliar with US phone number formats, the prefix is the number after the area code - aaa-bbb-cccc - the bbb part is the prefix)

That may have been what Uncle Robin meant. Yes the prefixes are different for cell phones and landlines not the area code. In fact they used to be assigned to specific carriers. Until the US allowed people to keep their phone number,when they changed service providers, the prefix would tell to carrier the caller used. It was one way the big companies kept customers leashed to them. If you changed carriers you got a new number. I switched from Sprint when they first allowed you to keep your number. My prefix is from sprint even though I use another carrier.
Apache

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Apache

... Until the US allowed people to keep their phone number,when they changed service providers, the prefix would tell to carrier the caller used....
Apache

Yes, it was the same here for the first decade or so of cellphones - the prefix told you the carrier. Cellphones here have never had any geographical identifier component, as other than the carrier prefix (now meaningless thanks to number portability), users have always been able choose their own number, if they wished to pay for the option.