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by 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.