Are You Loyal to Your Old Area Code?

[Principessa]

Have you moved recently? Is your cell phone still loyal to your old area code? Do you feel the need to get a new number in your new area code?

I ask because as many of you know I moved from my beloved New Jersey and the 732 area code to rural Georgia and the 770 area code in June of 2007. I staunchly refused to change my number when I arrived because I was a Jersey Girl. I'm still a Jersey Girl but I'm getting tired of the funny looks at the doctors office and other places when people ask for my cell number. I don't know why but I feel like by giving up that 732 cell# I am giving up a bit of myself and my rights to go home again.:redface: Yeah I know that's stupid but I like my cell number I've had it for like 5 years now. If I change I might get an ugly number. :frown1:

I remember watching Men in Trees last year and the main character, played by Anne Heche, faced a similar decision and it totally resonated with me.

Men in Trees - Episode: Get a Life
Area Codes 917 and 646

Annie: Jack, no! A 646, maybe, but a 917? That's vintage, that's class, that's New York City.

The original area code for land lines in New York City/Manhattan was 212. In the 90s, the 917 area code was overlaid in the same area, meaning new numbers, mostly cell phones, were given the 917 area code. In 1999, area code 646 was added. This is why Annie calls 917 vintage. If someone has a 917 area code, it is believed to be more elite because a person had a cell phone before the big wave of technology.

 

[MickeyLee]

i still have my miami phone :redface: the number is local for the people i really care about, so i'll keep it until i can talk everyone into relocating.

i do have a second phone for my new location. easier for work and ordering curries.

ml

 

[IntoxicatingToxin]

I live on the border of two states. So area codes don't affect me much. It's either 816 or 913 for everyone I know. Which area code I have doesn't affect me any. If I moved to another state or something, I'd get a new phone number. That way any new friends I made wouldn't have to call my cell phone long distance just to talk to me. (I can't just assume they'd all have cell phones.)

 

[Principessa]

i still have my miami phone :redface: the number is local for the people i really care about, so i'll keep it until i can talk everyone into relocating.

Exactly! I still have a number of friends in Jersey and a few family members to whom I speak with a fair degree of regularity. This way it's a local call for them. :smile:
i do have a second phone for my new location. easier for work and ordering curries. ml[/quote]

I live on the border of two states. So area codes don't affect me much. It's either 816 or 913 for everyone I know. Which area code I have doesn't affect me any. If I moved to another state or something, I'd get a new phone number.

That way any new friends I made wouldn't have to call my cell phone long distance just to talk to me.

That is pretty much the only reason I am considering this now.

(I can't just assume they'd all have cell phones.)[/

QUOTE]

Why not? Even my 91 year old great aunt in North Carolina has a cell phone. :yup: Then again she's always been pretty hip. Her senior church bowling team won again this year and she was voted most improved player. Her average is now 155, up from 123.

 

[nudeyorker]

No I have no loyalty really. I still have my 212 New York #, but when I changed my residency to Hawaii, I got an 808 cell phone is a New York Minute!

 

[MarkLondon]

You have local area codes for mobile phones in the States? How weird. In the UK and France (so, presumeably most European countries) there are separate codes for mobiles that do not correspond with geographical areas. In the UK most mobile numbers start with 07. It's 06 in France.

We can tell at a glance what kind of phone we're calling, and what kind of charge to expect.

 

[798686]

Yeh - we have area codes for landlines in the UK - but not mobiles (maybe cos there are fewer people here, lol).

I was sad to leave my old landline area code no. behind when I moved from Liverpool to Wales - but got used to it in the end.

 

[Northland]

Men in Trees - Episode: Get a Life
Area Codes 917 and 646

Annie: Jack, no! A 646, maybe, but a 917? That's vintage, that's class, that's New York City.

The original area code for land lines in New York City/Manhattan was 212. In the 90s, the 917 area code was overlaid in the same area, meaning new numbers, mostly cell phones, were given the 917 area code. In 1999, area code 646 was added. This is why Annie calls 917 vintage. If someone has a 917 area code, it is believed to be more elite because a person had a cell phone before the big wave of technology.

The problem with this of course is the same as what has happened with 212 area codes. Although when the overlay of codes, with the 646. came into play, no new 212's were created and when a 212 ceased being used it remained dormant, they have begun emerging for some of the latest individuals moving to New York, and it's not even a matter of having to place a special request for them. They are just being assigned automatically.

As to the cell, my current 917 was issued to me in September of 2002 at a time when most people were being saddled with 646. Luck or the good senses of AT&T? I don't know, I'm just glad I got it.

 

[Viking_UK]

UK here, so the area code thing doesn't apply to mobiles (cells), but I've kept the same number since I got my first mobile in the '90s even though I've changed provider. It means that anyone who's ever been given my number can still contact me. (Hopefully not my Finnish doppelganger though!)

 

[6398401]

UK here, so the area code thing doesn't apply to mobiles (cells), but I've kept the same number since I got my first mobile in the '90s even though I've changed provider. It means that anyone who's ever been given my number can still contact me. (Hopefully not my Finnish doppelganger though!)

Do you still have the mobile number you got in the '90s?

 

[Viking_UK]

Yeah. No point in changing it.

 

[Scarletbegonia]

When I was in exile, San Fransisco got a second area code.
People freaked. 415 became a popular tattoo.
Over the Bay Bridge, the Nickel Dime folks (510) were concerned they’d have to deal with a second area code as well. it was the first place I’d lived where local calls were seven digits, not ten, in almost 30 years.

My first telephone was a party line of five houses.

 

[286798]

I have a mobile with a number from my home town, but I haven't lived there for ~25 years and have lived in ~15 places different places since then. Lots of reasons... local call for family who still has a landline, I've had the same number since '99 so a random "Is this (Lurker)?" is never a wrong number, sentimental attachment to my home.

Unfortunately, it's also similar to my current area code with the middle digit being different. Locals don't always listen carefully and assume it's here. When giving my number out, I have to say first MIDDLE last and they still write the local area code.

Both my home area and current home had area code changes... and the "original" number is coveted.

 

[HorseHung40's]

This is something that never interested me.

At one time I lived on a street that was also an area code boundary. My side of the street had one area code; the opposite side of the street had another area code.