Voip Blog
Do Area Codes Really Matter Anymore?
Saturday, May 24, 2008
About 9 months ago, I moved from the 360 area code to the 253 area code. It meant a lot of changes for our household. Every aspect of our utilities and fixed telecommunications changed. With the exception of gas service, every connection was with a different, unrelated company from the one before. It also meant a new fixed line number for the house.
The one thing neither of changed was our mobile numbers. Enough people had our respective mobile numbers that it would have been more of a pain to change it than to simply leave it alone. The mobile operator, quite frankly, doesn't care where we are. The same thing is true at voip.com. We don't care where you are in the country, you can have a number in any location you want. Just ask and chances are, we can give you a number there or in a nearby town
Given that we opted for unlimited long distance for our home telephone, the fact that it is "long distance" to call our mobile phones from home doesn't even enter our consciousness. It's long distance for other people in the local area to call our mobile phone, but they too either have unlimited long distance or the minutes are cheap enough as to not be a concern.
So why do we have area codes, still? It's definitely part of the Ma Bell legacy, and for some, it is an important indicator of location. Despite the fact that services like voip.com erase the concept of domestic long distance from your thinking, there are still people out there that use the legacy telcos for their voice service--and don't have unlimited long distance. It's the reason voip.com offers the ability to have numbers in most any part of the country.
