NATIONWIDE NUMBERING PLAN 859 



in the customers' local dialing area. For these offices with five or four- 

 (litiit local dialing and for offices in the larger places served by certain 

 t.\'pes of dial equipment, as they are arranged today, it will be necessary 

 to prefix the dialing of toll calls by a transfer or directing code to permit 

 the customer getting from the local ofhce into the toll network. 



Independent of the adxantages of a universal 2-5 numbering plan 

 f(M- nationwide operator and customer toll dialing, the Bell System has 

 made considcral)le progress in this direction over the past several years. 

 \ew York antl Northern New Jersey adopted 2-5 numbering in 1930 

 in order to take advantage of the flexibility of office code assignments 

 and the large code capacity which this type of local numbering provides. 

 Since World War II many cities and their environs such as Chicago, 

 Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, 

 Pro\idence and a number of smaller cities have followed suit. Presently 

 al)out 12 million telephones are in areas which have 2-5 numbering 

 exclusively in addition to perhaps two million telephones with 2-5 

 numbers in mixed 2-4 and 2-5 areas. Another five million telephones 

 are already planned for conversion to 2-5 numbers within the next 

 several years. 



The entire program will take many years to realize but it is one which 

 must be accomplished in order to achieve the best results in operator 

 toll dialing and make it possible for a customer at any telephone in the 

 United States and Canada to reach a telephone anywhere in the two 

 co\nitries by dialing without the assistance of an operator. 



