U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for November 21: Direct Dialing

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

DIRECT DIALING
Profile America — Monday, November 21st. A key part of daily telecommunications is 65 years old this month, as direct-dial telephone area codes for transcontinental calling were introduced in 1951. The mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, made the first official call, picking up the phone and directly calling his counterpart in Alameda, California. At the time, all previous long distance calls went through an operator. To begin with, there were 86 exchanges, but the vast expansion in cell phone usage means the U.S. is fast running out of 10-digit phone numbers. American residential customers on average pay $350 annually for their home telephone service and over $960 for cell phones. Despite our familiarity with do-it-yourself calling, there are still some 30,000 telephone operators serving us.  Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources:       
Kane's Famous First Facts, 7745
First call & exchanges/accessed 8/26/2016: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/our-numbered-days-the-evolution-of-the-area-code/283803/ 
Phone bills/page 4/accessed 8/26/2016: http://www.bls.gov/cex/2014/combined/age.pdf 
Number of operators: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/14_5YR/B24121

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu).

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

Related Links

http://www.census.gov

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