In message <B29E85C0-81A5-4BDB-B821-9393EF5A85BB@yahoo.com>, David Barak writes :
On Apr 15, 2016, at 3:09 PM, Mark Andrews <marka@isc.org> wrote:
Australia is about the area as the US and has always had caller pays and seperate area codes for mobiles.
Australia has fewer people than Texas, and is more than an order of magnitude smaller than the US by population. Effects of scale apply here in terms of path dependence for solutions.
David Barak Sent from mobile device, please excuse autocorrection artifacts
NA has a 10 digit scheme (3 area code - 7 local) though most of the time you end up dialing the 10 digits. Australia has a 9 digit scheme (1 area code - 8 local) Yes the area codes are huge (multi-state) and some "local" calls are sometimes long distance. In my lifetime local calls have gone from 6 digits to 7 and then 8 digits. The last change got rid of lots of area codes and expanded all the local numbers to 8 digits. This allows you to use what was a Canberra number in Sydney as they are now all in the same area code. Canberra and Sydney are a 3 hour drive apart. We are no longer in a age where we need to route calls on a digit by digit basis. Mark -- Mark Andrews, ISC 1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742 INTERNET: marka@isc.org