Since the topic has been brought up - just how did the first three digits
of phone numbers (not the area code) get started or assigned? Is it a
regional development from the early local company number assignments (such
as "Operator ... W-7 please")? when I was a kid (not too long ago!) we had
Oldfield 5 which translated on the dial as 655, but no one ever seemed to
know where the "Oldfield" came from - which came first - the numbers or the
letters? Were they devised on some logical plan like the compass system
used on the Rural Indexes? Was it a local thing devised by the local
companies and then modified when they were gobbled up by Ma Bell???
Just curious.
Dan W.