Optimal Way To Enter Phone Numbers In Phone Book?

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Tiziano - 27 Apr 2008 19:22 GMT

I finally decided to get cell phone service... So, I am a complete
newbie and I hope that what I am going to ask is not too silly. Please
let me know if there is a better NG where this question should be asked.

Background: I have T-Mobile (GSM network) service and I live in the USA.

Currently, I am storing phone numbers in my cell phone with the
following formats:
* area code + phone number: for phone numbers within my area code;
* 1 + area code + phone number: for phone numbers outside of my area code;
* 011 + country code + city code + phone number: for international
phone numbers.

The question that I have is: Is this an optimal way of storing phone
numbers so that they can be dialed no matter where I am?

Say, for the sake of argument, that my area code is "123" but I find
myself physically within area code "456" and I try to call somebody who
is in my phone book using the format 1 + 456 + phone number. Will the
call go through?

And what happens if I am overseas, say in country code 39 (Italy), and I
dial somebody's phone number using the format currently in my phone
book, i.e. 011 + 39 + city code + phone number? As far as I know, the
international access code "011" is not valid in Europe. Does it mean
that if I am there I have to re-format all my European phone numbers in
the phone book? And what if I want to call somebody in the USA from Europe?

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Todd Allcock - 27 Apr 2008 20:13 GMT

> Background: I have T-Mobile (GSM network) service and I live in the USA.
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> The question that I have is: Is this an optimal way of storing phone
> numbers so that they can be dialed no matter where I am?

Yes. GSM makes it very easy. Store ALL numbers as "+" (yes, the plus sign-
check your phone manual to see how to enter it- sometimes it's holding
down the # key for a it) then country code and number. So a New York
number might be +12125551212.

The cellphone providers recog ise the + to mean "the international dialing
code for whatever country the phone is currently in" and they're smart
enoug to sort out the local and long distance for you. (I.e. you can dial
all ten/eleven digits even for "local" seven digit calls.>

> Say, for the sake of argument, that my area code is "123" but I find
> myself physically within area code "456" and I try to call somebody
> who is in my phone book using the format 1 + 456 + phone number. Will

the call go through?

Yes, just as 123xxxyyyy will go through in your home area code, as will
1123xxxyyyy and +1123xxxyyyy, and even 0111123xxxyyyy

> And what happens if I am overseas, say in country code 39 (Italy),
> and I dial somebody's phone number using the format currently in
> my phone book, i.e. 011 + 39 + city code + phone number? As far
> as I know, the international access code "011" is not valid in Europe.

Correct- that would probably fair, which is why the Gods of GSM gave us
mere mortals the "+" key. +(country code/area code, number) works
everywhere.

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Larry - 27 Apr 2008 21:32 GMT

> The question that I have is: Is this an optimal way of storing phone
> numbers so that they can be dialed no matter where I am?

+(countrycode)(area code)(number) will call any phone from anyplace,
even across the street. Put the WHOLE phone number in ALL the phonebook
numbers, even the local ones. It won't charge you $1.99/second to call
across the street if you put the country code in the number. It's not
that stupid.

Speaking of Italy, I was a US sailor in Napoli in 1966. To make a phone
call to the USA in 1966, you went to the telephone office in Napoli and
PREPAID for how long you wanted to talk to America, about $5/minute. If
you had any brains, you took along someone who could translate English
into Italian because none of the telephone company employees spoke
English, only Italian of course.

Now, once you paid for your overseas call (or even two towns up from
Napoli), you went and sat down with the other 372 people waiting their
turn for the 24 phone booths used to make long distance pre-paid calls
in the telephone office for the entire city, and listened VERY carefully
for your name to be called on the PA system whos speakers made a huge
echo in the ancient marble building with 20 meter high ceilings. Wait
time was measured in HOURS, not minutes.

The INSTANT your name was called, YOUR TIME WAS RUNNING at amazingly
expensive rates, so even little old Italian ladies who could hardly walk
RACED to the phone booths before their time was all used up.

When the time you had paid for was up, the phone simply went dead, no
matter what....right to the second. You never got to say goodbye,
causing whoever you called not familiar with Italian Tell 'N Tell to
think Napoli had been nuked and you simply vanished.....POOF!

Looks like things are better, now.....(c;

(Any resemblance between me and any current Italians whos mother was
"working the streets", is purely coincidental.)

Ah, Napoli Harbor.....Just like driving your ship into an open sewer.

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