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The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) divides the territories of its members into geographic numbering plan areas (NPAs). Each NPA is identified by one or more numbering plan area codes (NPA codes, or area codes), consisting of three digits that are prefixed to each local telephone number having seven digits.
There are national telephone services which have phone numbers in the format of 1XX or 1XXX, without any area code. For example, 114 is for telephone yellow page, 119 is for fire/emergency number, 112 is for police station center, 131 is for weather forecast information, 1333 is for traffic information, and so on.
Canada and the United States have experienced rapid growth in the number of area codes, particularly between 1990 and 2005. The widespread adoption of fax, modem, and mobile phone communication, as well as the deregulation of local telecommunication services in the United States during the mid-1990s, increased the demand for telephone numbers.
Telephone numbers listed in 1920 in New York City having three-letter exchange prefixes. In the United States, the most-populous cities, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago, initially implemented dial service with telephone numbers consisting of three letters and four digits (3L-4N) according to a system developed by W. G. Blauvelt of AT&T in 1917. [1]
An area code of three digits dialed after the country code determines the area served in the United States and its territories, Canada, and much of the Caribbean. Zone 2 uses two 2-digit codes (20, 27) and eight sets of 3-digit codes (21x–26x, 28x, 29x), mostly to serve Africa , but also Aruba , Faroe Islands , Greenland and British Indian ...
In several European countries, a different strategy prevailed, known as the open numbering plan, which features a variance in the length of the area code, the local number, or both. [3] United States telephone numbers often included letter prefixes and telephone exchange names, which were more easily memorable for users than long digit sequences.
The North American Numbering Plan is based on a ten-digit telephone number assigned to each telephone in the telephone network. The number is composed of the three-digit numbering plan area code, a three-digit central office code, and a four-digit station or line number. Certain rules govern the numerical format of each part.
The prefixes in the Americas start with one of 1,2,5. All countries in the Americas use codes that start with "5", with the exception of the countries of the North American Numbering Plan, such as Canada and the United States, which use country code 1, and Greenland and Aruba with country codes starting with the digit "2", which mostly is used by countries in Africa.