What is the second set of three numbers called?

Question

In the phone number what is the second set of three numbers called? I know that the first set is the area code. The second set is usually used throughout a town or two. It is not a town code. for example 999 ->(999)<- 9999. I cannot find an answer to this on-line.

Answer 1

The second set of numbers is the &#039;prefix&#039;.. Years ago, the prefix was letters and numbers like MA8 (Manhatten 8) or BO5 (Boston 5) then it went to all numbers.

Answer 2

The first #(s) is the country code. The second 3 are the area code. The next 3 are the local exchange or some times called the central office code and the last 4 are the individual phone number. In the US, since the country code is 01, the leading 0 doesn&#039;t have to be dialed here so an example would be : 1 937 890 1234. When a call is made in the same exchange, only the exchange and phone numbers have to be dialed: 890 1234. The #s 937 and 890 are used here only for examples.

Hope this helps you.

Answer 3

Answers are correct so far, but technically the three in question are &quot;Exchange&quot;. Great explanation on country codes and such and the morphing of the &quot;prefix&quot; to exchange numbers.

Remember Sarah in Mayberry...&quot;Sarah ..get me Goober at the filling station.  When operators connected all calls&#039;

Trivia background - the rotary dial system, comes from a  mortician named Stroger. The Stroger stepping system is what used to place our calls. Each number dialed would cause a metal arm to swing to a connection leading to another metal arm.

For legal reasons, you always hear phone numbers on TV programs as x*x - 555 - xxxx. The 555 is the allowed exchange to be used in public broadcasting.

Information 555 -1212 used to be referred to as triple nickle double dozen

Answer 4

the prefix