FACT: area codes

at a party the other night, i was finally enlightened as to the origins of the seemingly random allocation of numerical area codes.

i've oft wondered- "how are these area codes decided upon? why the haphazard designation of one number in one location and a completely unrelated number in a location next door?"

turns out- it's all because of old rotary phones!

in 1947, the most important and populace locations were given the easiest to dial codes, hence nyc w. 212, la w. 213, chicago w. 312 etc.

feel sorry for my fellow canadians in pei- nobody was going through the trouble of dialing 902 back in the rotary phone days.