Lack of Intelligent Area Code Dialling: Someone Explain This to Me...

[Jason Dunn]

I don't know all that much about the inner workings of mobile phone networks, so the following criticism might be baseless. I'm open to learning more about this though, so feel free to correct me.

If I could pick one network-related pet peeve, it would be this: why is it that when I'm in a different area code, phones aren't smart enough to recognize that and adjust themselves accordingly? With Pocket PCs, you can set the home area code - I'm having a hard time finding that setting on the Smartphone (it's not in the same place), but regardless, phones know when they're roaming outside their home network, right?

Isn't there a way for the network to say "Your home area code is 403, but you're now in the 780 area code" and then have the software dialler automatically parse in the proper dialling string for that area code? Is this a limitation of the networks, the software, or both? I've never had a phone that has done this properly, and it's a constant frustration for me, because I always do the same thing: open up the contact list, press call, then listen to the operator tell me I'm making a phone call that is long distance (and it's even more confusing when the operator is speaking to me in a language I don't understand). Then I have to memorize the phone number and add a 1-780 (or whatever) in front of it.

Am I missing an easy fix for this? How do you deal with this issue?

[Mike Temporale]

Am I missing an easy fix for this? How do you deal with this issue?

Personally, I yell, scream, and curse. But that's just me. :wink:

I have often thought the same thing. There has to be a better way for this to work. The problem I see with having it automatically detect the home area code is that some places have multiple area codes which are all rated as local calls. I can dial 416, 905, 647, or 289. All of which are local calls. The software must be able to remember what is local to you. However, that's the only 'catch' I can see. This would make a great app for anyone with some free time on their hands.

[possmann]

interesting - I've never really had that problem - are you saying that you cannot connect to a local number when the phone dials the number and area code for a number?

I live in a 262 area code, work in a 414 (they are both local) and have several numbers stored in my phone - granted it's not a smartphone yet (waiting for the motorola...) but I've never had an issue with the phone dialing a 262 number using the complete 10 digit number...

I'm a T-Mobile users

[jim s]

I also am not yet a SmartPhone owner, but what I do is enter the 10 digit number into my phone for all phone numbers. Everything works fine - no 1 needed before number, local or long distance. I have free long distance on my plan (Verizon) so I don't care if a local number is being dialed LD or not.

[rbrome]

I also am not yet a SmartPhone owner, but what I do is enter the 10 digit number into my phone for all phone numbers. Everything works fine - no 1 needed before number, local or long distance. I have free long distance on my plan (Verizon) so I don't care if a local number is being dialed LD or not.

Bingo. I was just about to say the same thing.

That's rule with cell phones in North America - 10 digits. (Or add the country code if you have a world phone and want to use your phone book overseas.)

Of course, I don't have a choice. Like many U.S. cities now, Philly has had overlaid area codes for a few years. 215, 267, and 445 are all overlapping area codes for my area, so there's simply no such thing as 7-digit dialing here.

[rbrome]

...
Am I missing an easy fix for this? How do you deal with this issue?

I guess you still have 7-digit phone numbers in your area. In many parts of the U.S., 7-digit phone numbers don't exist any more - 10 digits are required. It will be that way across North America before long. You might as well start dialing 10 digits now - you shouldn't be charged long distance if it's a local number.

[Ottoman]

Always dial 10 digits on mobile phones. They are "smart" enough to know when you are in your own local calling territory (which is different than you land line territory) and you will not be charged for long distance calls.

I actually wish land lines were as smart as the mobile networks....

[Arne Hess]

Hm, don't get the question but maybe it's a North American related topic?
The regular GSM way to use phone number/store phone numbers is:

+CC_NC_PN = +Country Code_Network Code_Phone Number

This means for instance I store the number of my girlfriend like the following:

+498912345678 : +49 = Germany, 89 = Munich, 12345678 = her number

Now it doesn't matter if I'm myself in 89 (Munich) area or not, the GSM network always dials the proper number AND knows that I'm in Munich (to charge me for a local call) or anywhere in Germany (to charge me for a long distance call) or abroad (to charge me an international roaming call).

At least that's how it is specified in the GSM specifications so there is no reason for the network to update your location.
But again, maybe I missed a North American specific topic here which wouldn't GSM conform than anyway.

[Mike Temporale]

Entering a 10 digit number isn't the problem.

If I have 416 555 1212 in my address book and I am located in 519. When I try and call the number I get a recorded message that says the number is long distance. Please add 1 and try your call again.

If I have 1 416 555 1212 in my address book, and I am in the 416 area code then it tells me that the number is not long distance, remove the 1 and try again.

Overlay area codes just make the problem more confusing, because now some numbers are local and work, while others are still long distance.

[Mike Temporale]

At least that's how it is specified in the GSM specifications so there is no reason for the network to update your location.
But again, maybe I missed a North American specific topic here which wouldn't GSM conform than anyway.

Interesting. That's not how it works for me. If I have 1 before a local call it fails. If I don't have the 1 before a long distance call, it also fails. :?

[Arne Hess]

Interesting. That's not how it works for me. If I have 1 before a local call it fails. If I don't have the 1 before a long distance call, it also fails. :?
You have to add a + in front of your country code (1 I expect).

+ CC NC PN

For instance I've stored all Microsoft numbers as:

+1 425 705-xyz

And I called there when I was in Redmond, as well as when I was in NYC and it also works for me to call them from Germany. Always the same number - no reason to change the number.

[Mike Temporale]

you mean the answer to all this is a + :!: Okay, I have to try this out.

[rbrome]

Entering a 10 digit number isn't the problem.

If I have 416 555 1212 in my address book and I am located in 519. When I try and call the number I get a recorded message that says the number is long distance. Please add 1 and try your call again.

If I have 1 416 555 1212 in my address book, and I am in the 416 area code then it tells me that the number is not long distance, remove the 1 and try again.

Overlay area codes just make the problem more confusing, because now some numbers are local and work, while others are still long distance.

Woah - wierd. That should NOT happen on a mobile phone - you should never be required to dial the "1" (unlike land lines). Something might be badly configured on the network side. What carrier do you use? What region?

[ClayMJohnson]

I'm in a different area code, phones aren't smart enough to recognize that and adjust themselves accordingly? Isn't there a way for the network to say "Your home area code is 403, but you're now in the 780 area code"

Jason ... this is in generic terms and is not tied to a specific phone. The problem is the information is data filled. When you register a new phone the carrier uses your ESN and data fills that information into "the system (HLR)". You now have a “home area”. So for example, lets say I travel from the 214 area code (my home area code) to the 512 area code. The phone does not know that I am in the 512 area code, but does know that I am not in my area. Now most phones are smart enough that if you use 10 digit dialing they know when to attach a "1". Some actual technical details. It is all with the interaction of the HLR, the MSC and the VLR. In your home area the HLR (Home Location Register) talks to the MSC (Mobile Switching Center) to do call processing. When you are out of your area a VLR (Visiting Location Register) keeps track of your information. So when you make a call the VLR will send a request to a MSC, which in turn queries the HLR and sends data back to the VLR. The VLR sends data to the MSC on how to route the call.

Kind of long, but hope I answered your question.

Clay Johnson-

[Mike Temporale]

Arne, You are a GOD. It works. I'm off to update all my contacts to include a "+1". Years and years of pain are washing away. :D

[possmann]

Could this just be a Canada or Fido thing?

[Mike Temporale]

Woah - wierd. That should NOT happen on a mobile phone - you should never be required to dial the "1" (unlike land lines). Something might be badly configured on the network side. What carrier do you use? What region?

That's the way it has always been for me. I've been on Bell (CDMA), Rogers (forget what network this is), and Fido (GSM). And all of these act the same. If it is a long distance call it fails, and makes me manually enter the 1.

However, on the bright side, Arne's suggestion seems to work nicely!

[greenmozart]

It must be Canadian... like when you have to add the term "Eh?" to the end of every sentence. You apparently have to add +1 to the beginning of every phone number. :lol:

Seriously, down here in the US I've never had to enter a "1" before any call, LD or not. I just store all my numbers as 10 digit and never have to worry about local vs LD... it just works and recognizes which calls are LD. Of course having free LD with Verizon and every other carrier I've had, be it Sprint, Nextel or Cingular, made it easy to ignore.

[rbrome]

Could this just be a Canada or Fido thing?

"+1", followed by a 10-digit North American phone number, should work on any GSM phone from anywhere in the world.

On any cell phone network in the U.S., you can dial just the 10 digits. It sounds like in Canada, you are sometimes required to dial a "1" first. In the U.S., I believe that's only true for land lines.

[Talyn]

I've been with Sprint and Cingular (normal not SmartPhone yet) and I have never needed to use a 1 for any numbers whatsoever. I have to use the full 10-digit number and the carrier always figures out if it's local or ld...

[Arne Hess]

Arne, You are a GOD. It works. I'm off to update all my contacts to include a "+1". Years and years of pain are washing away. :D
Thanks, but not really a "god", just 11 years of working in the GSM industry - so yes, maybe I'm GOOD but not GOD! ;-)
Anyway, happy it works for you now and keep in mind, if you store all your contacts in the right format with +CC_NC_PN you never have to remember anything again because this is how GSM is working world wide and if you will go abroad, your cell phone will knows how to dial your number!
GSM rules since it is so convenient - you you know the details! :-D Enjoy

[Jason Dunn]

Whoops....I guess I should have been more specific with this. All the phone numbers in my contact list are in seven digit format: 123-4567. Alberta, the province where I live, has only two area codes, and even that was a big deal when it happened in the '90s. So the reality is that those of you who have no problem with this have manually included the area code in all of your contacts, and think in terms of 10-digit phone numbers, not seven digit phone numbers. When I call my mobile phone voice mail, it's a ten digit number, and I always thought that was so STRANGE - looks like it was just me being strange. ;-)

It's a foreign concept for me to think of phone numbers as being ten digits, so I guess this boils down to a perception problem on my end...but since ten digits are the way to go, I'd sure like it if Outlook encouraged ten digit entry rather than seven digita (ie: it should auto-populate the area code for local numbers).

Thanks for clearing this up guys!

[Arne Hess]

It's a foreign concept for me to think of phone numbers as being ten digits, so I guess this boils down to a perception problem on my end...but since ten digits are the way to go, I'd sure like it if Outlook encouraged ten digit entry rather than seven digita (ie: it should auto-populate the area code for local numbers).

Thanks for clearing this up guys!

No, it's not that foreign as you might believe but was introduced by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) which suggested 10/11 digits for numbers including network/area code.

So even for Europeans it's strange because our phone numbers always starts with a leading 0 for the are code (like 089 for Munich which would be in N.-America 89 only) but this leading 0 isn't counted.
So my fixed line number is 08925007xyz which is 11 digits but without the leading 0 it's 10 only...

On a side note why it makes sense to have area code/network code: In the beginning, Vodafone Germany allowed their customers to call customers in the same VF network without the network code which seems to makes sense - both are VF customers. So instead of calling 0172 1234567 you dialed 1234567 only. However, because of the success of GSM Vodafone (like all other carriers here) got additional network code. Today they have 0172, 0173 and more. As you can see, the phone number 1234567 is given two or even three times now. So network codes makes sense but you are right, you have to add them within Outlook, which seems to be common for a European but not that common for an American, if I got your bottom line right.

[colinkhalid]

In the U.K there are no such issues. Any number dialed must always have the area code even if you are in that area.
If you are in that area the code is ignored.
It does not matter from the cost point of view as all mobile calls are the same cost. there is in fact no home area or code .

[ctmagnus]

Some UK numbers I've seen list the 0 and others do not. When my sister was over there, her number was 0xxxyyyzzzz but when I dialed +011440xxxyyyzzzz, I got an error. Omitting the 0, thus +01144xxxyyyzzzz, worked.

So I assume that the 0 is for long distance within the UK and it is omitted when dialing within the local calling area, even though it's also omitted when calling from overseas?

[ARW]

Some UK numbers I've seen list the 0 and others do not. When my sister was over there, her number was 0xxxyyyzzzz but when I dialed +011440xxxyyyzzzz, I got an error. Omitting the 0, thus +01144xxxyyyzzzz, worked.

So I assume that the 0 is for long distance within the UK and it is omitted when dialing within the local calling area, even though it's also omitted when calling from overseas?

Wow, talk about resurrecting the dead. It must have taken a fair bit of digging to find this post.

[Mike Temporale]

Wow, talk about resurrecting the dead. It must have taken a fair bit of digging to find this post.

Usually, but I referenced this in another thread where CTmagnus and I were discussing dialing contacts. ;)