Massachusetts Phone Rules Changed 25 Years Ago

I'm old enough to remember when we only had to dial five digits to complete a call on our rotary telephone that was attached to the wall by a wire. Of course, I'm old enough to remember operator-assisted calls and party lines, too.

When Phone Calls Were Simpler

By the late 1950s, Bell Telephone began requiring seven digits. In New Bedford, it meant a local call required dialing the digits 9-9 before dialing the five-digit phone number.

Extra numbers!

Why 10-Digit Dialing Became Necessary

Mandatory 10-digit dialing in Massachusetts became a thing 25 years ago on April 2, 2001. That meant dialing the area code – in our case 508 – before the prefix and main phone number.

The new policy affected Eastern Massachusetts (area codes 617, 781, 508, and 978) to accommodate the new "overlay codes" (857, 339, 774, and 351). The new rules were established by the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy under Gov. Paul Cellucci.

The reason for the change was the "rapid demand for new telephone numbers, which required 'overlaying' new area codes onto existing ones, making the area code necessary to differentiate calls."

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Preparing for the Big Change in 2001

A March 2001 memo from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology stated, "Starting Monday, April 2, all calls within Eastern Massachusetts, local or toll, will require ten digits: the area code plus the number."

In February 2001, the Harvard Gazette published instructions on preparing for the change.

"Mandatory ten-digit dialing is necessary because four new area codes are being overlaid on the existing area codes to handle the demand for new telephone numbers," the memo read.

How Technology Changed Calling Forever

Today's cell phone technology allows a caller to place a call by pushing a button or issuing a verbal command. You don't even have to know the phone number you are dialing.