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by SandyAndyPerth 2326 days ago
>I have a mobile number in an area

Wow, that's fascinating to find out that is how the US works.

Australian mobile numbers and I'm pretty sure most of the European ones, are prefixed by carrier and have no geographical breakdown.
1 comments
runako 2325 days ago
Yup, the first 3 digits (the area code) tell you the the part of the country where the number is located. Obviously this was setup before mobile!

> prefixed by carrier and have no geographical breakdown.

I'm not sure how/if that would work here given the active mergers & acquisitions in telecom. (Among other things, some of these require some customers to be divested to achieve approval of the deal.)

Additionally, we actually had Congress pass a law requiring the ability for consumers to take their number to other carriers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan#...

Prior to this, carriers could use as leverage the fact that people prefer not to change their phone number.

link