We got this a few months back on the coast, also.There is no escape...Phone Co save a few bucks and we dial in discomfort.

Eventually, it won't matter, with more and more people using cell phones as their primary or sole phones. Since people often keep their old numbers when they move, the whole idea of area codes is becoming quaint. (I no longer consider someone's area code to be a reliable indicator of where they live.)

For the first few months it's actually 17-digit dialing... seven digits for the first attempt and then 10 on the second try - usually with a "d@mmit" in between. After that 10-digit dialing isn't so bad.

10-digit dialing is just one of those compromises to avoid forcing 1/2 the people in an area code to change their phone numbers - and related documents, informing contacts, etc. I don't think 10-digit dialing is so hellish.

New York always one-ups us: they dial 11 digits.

I no longer consider someone's area code to be a reliable indicator of where they live.

I've been strongly considering swapping out of my 971 cell phone and slipping into something from the 619 or 602 strictly for the caché. There's nothing stopping anyone from doing that. Heck, my brother still has his Chicago number on his cell even though he's lived in Boston and NYC in the last few years.

And through the magic of VOIP services like Vonage, you can even do that with your home phone.

Been thinking of getting a 202 number and faking a DC office. But then, I'd get calls at 6 a.m.

Two words: Grand Central.

As we get rid of fax numbers and home numbers this is a stupid idea. Also, the phone company allocates numbers for each town so a town with 10 people in it use up 10,000 numbers or some stupid huge amount. Think of the value of our collective time dialing extra numbers and wrong numbers etc

"usually with a "d@mmit" in between ...

Right on, PdxMark. Can somebody explain to me why, in these days of digital processing, the system comes back to tell me when I misdial that "you must dial a '1'" or "it is not necessary to dial a '1'"? If the system can diagnose the error, why can't it correct it and just put the damn call through? Is this beyond the tech geniuses in charge? Here in Salem we have a 971 area code that may or may not need a "1" in front; there's just no telling. I can't begin to quantify the substantial time I waste each day dialing a second time.

"... a town with 10 people in it ...."

It's called a 'camp,' I think. 10,000 numbers is called an 'exchange.'