Anti-Digit Dialing League

— About —

Initially founded in 1962, the Anti-Digit Dialing League quickly became the premiere sensible dialing association organization in the United States of America. Nearly 60 years later, the problems this country's phone network faces are direr than ever. While we continue to espouse the use of 2L+5N dialing over all-number calling whenever possible, our primary aim today is to publicly oppose the proliferation of 10-digit dialing, which is fast becoming a public nuisance and dialing nightmare for ordinary people everywhere in this country.

— Latest —

The A.D.D.L. is making headlines once again! Although 771 is scheduled to be overlaid on D.C.'s 202 area code in 2021, forcing residents of our nation's capitol to dial 10 digits forevermore, the A.D.D.L. objected to the use of an overlay as a matter of principle. According to NANPA, splits are unlawful when the majority of the area code is in the same rate center (as is D.C.) (see pg. 12 of Sept. 1 Community Hearing Transcript). That doesn't mean overlays are inevitable in other areas, though. Overlays continue to remain a public nuisance, and although splits have not been commonplace since 2006, we will continue to urge the use of splits over overlays whenever possible, because splits better serve the public interest, a finding which is well supported by empirical data.

A.D.D.L. was recently featured in coverage of D.C.'s new 771 area code:

• D.C.’s New Area Code Will Be… 771 (2020/09/22)
• Say Hello To D.C.’s New Area Code: 771 (2020/09/22)

— 988 Ruling —

The FCC has ruled that 83 area codes will likely be forced to give up 7-digit dialing by 2022 (87 area codes are affected [CenturyLink and AT&T], but only 83 are directly impacted since a few others were "due" for overlays anyways). We condemn the FCC's cruel decision and stand in solidarity with the victims of the affected area codes. Learn more about this ruling.

Further Resources:

• FC 20-100 Report and Order (7/16/20)
• USTelecom Ex Parte comments

  A.D.D.L. is organizing to oppose this new bout of numbering nonsense. While a suicide hotline in and of itself can be helpful, the FCC's implementation is deeply flawed and will permanently negatively affect millions of people by requiring them to dial additional digits for ALL calls that they make! Time is of the essence — please help organize with us to oppose 10-digit dialing requirements in areas that currently have 7-digit dialing. If we don't act now, 83 area codes will permanently lose 7-digit dialing and potentially much of their traditional landline infrastructure as well!

  Our Proposals

  Please see the link above for details on the FCC's order, the recommended implementation, its many implications, and various other proposals that were considered and rejected for background on this issue.

  While we believe that the FCC's and NANC's reasoning is inherently flawed, it is unlikely that it will be reversed. Our best bet at this point is to accept that 988 will be rolled out nationwide and to mitigate the effects of the disastrous implementations on affected communities. In areas that already have 10-digit dialing, the implementation of 988 will not any have any adverse effects. However, of all the areas that retain 7-digit dialing, more than half will lose it due to 988 requirements if we don't act NOW.

  1. The best plan we have at this time is to work with the 83 affected area codes and plan for the 988 exchange to be removed from service prior to the 2022 deadline. In this way, there would no longer be a dialplan conflict and 988 access could be provided without necessitating a timeout (since it would be a prefix-free code) and thus without requiring 10-digit dialing. Although it would require at most 10,000 phone number changes, we believe this temporary one-time inconvenience to 10,000 people (at most) is vastly preferrable to permanently inconveniencing the entire area code!
  2. If the 988 exchange cannot be reasonably be removed from service, the next best alternative is to implement a timeout to allow 988-XXXX local calls to complete normally while employing a slight (3 or 4 second) timeout on 988 calls. While we generally detest the use of timeouts in the public network, they are vastly preferable to 10 or 11 digit-dialing, particularly for a seldom-dialed number, and timeouts are already widely used (e.g. calls to 0 employ a timeout to distinguish from 011+ calls, etc.). We have a report from central Florida that access to the 988-XXXX test lines continues while the 988 hotline is simultaneously reachable via a timeout — meaning this technique is already deployed in some areas.

  Whether or not your area already has 10-digit dialing, is on the "hit list of 83", or will be allowed to dial in peace for now, creeping numeralism anywhere is a threat to sensible dialing everywhere! Help us ensure that common sense prevails! Join an A.D.D.L. chapter near you!

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  — Problem —

  Today, people in more and more areas of the United States are encountering something called "10-digit dialing", whereby in addition to dialing a person's telephone number, one must also preface it with the area code, even for local calls within the same area code. If you think this makes no sense, you're not alone! Ten-digit dialing is even more of a public nuisance than all-number calling. If you want to list your office number 555-1212 as KLondike5-1212, you have the complete freedom to do that. However, when 10-digit dialing goes into effect in a locale, P.O.T.S. customers often have little choice but to suck it up and dial 3 more digits for every local call they make.

  A root cause of this modern evil is the recent phenmenon of preferring overlays as opposed to splits in the past two decades. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Splits are what have been traditionally done, while overlays are more common today. The main advantage of a split is that it preserves the network numbering as it was originally designed. Area codes were designed to be geographically unique, and splits ensure that area codes stay that way. Overlays, somewhat paradoxically, simply lay area codes on top of one another, so that certain geographical areas do not have a unique area code. Apart from the disunity and confusion in which this often results, the FCC has mandated that in areas where overlays are in effect, 10-digit dialing be mandatory, so as not to give subscribers of the original area code any "advantage". Of course, this is purely ridiculous. Most people don't care about what the FCC considers to be fair and only care that their fingers are now a little sorer everyday.

  Proponents of overlays point out that no telephone numbers change following an overlay, whereas with splits, the customers in the new area code have changed numbers. In fact, this is not quite true. In neither case do any phone numbers change. With splits, only the area code of the affected customers changes, and this is a key difference. The number itself does not change and it is still geographically unique. KL5-1212 in Anytown, USA will still be unique. With a split, there could be multiple KL5-1212s in multiple area codes — numbers are no longer unique — what a mess!

  A major contributor to this problem has been unnecessary overuse of area codes. In the beginning, one determined the area code for a distant person by looking up that person's location. For areas without overlays, this still works, but it becomes impossible for people who live in overlaid areas. Although in an ideal world, we would never need more area codes, a healthier approach is not getting too hung up on specific area codes, which have and can change. If you remember your friend lives in Anytown, you will always be able to reach him provided there are no overlays. If you only remember what his area code is, and it changes, then the phone company and the public utilities commission have just screwed a lot of people.

  We advocate returning to the original philosophy behind area codes. First, that they be geographically unique. This is somewhat difficult considering that a number of overlays have already tainted the North American Numbering Plan, but the Anti-Digit Dialing League maintains a firm resistance and opposition to all present and future area code overlays. We advocate that sensible splits be done instead, if number relief is truly necessary in an area. If people are in the habit of informing others of their location rather than their area code, there is little benefit to performing an overlay. Although reprogramming of telephone dialers may be necessary in the event of a split, it is also necessary when overlays happen, as machines must be reprogrammed to dial 10 digits instead of 7, not for any real, valid technical reason, but rather for bureaucratic ones.

  Finally, it is in the best interest of everyone to maintain 7-digit dialing. Studies have shown again and again that most people can remember, at best, about seven items. This is just enough to accomodate someone's telephone number, but not an area code along with it. A key difference about the negative impacts that splits and overlays have on their communities is that one has only temporary implications while the other has permanent ramifications. Following a split, publications that include area codes may need to be updated (we would kindly like to point out that when splits occur, businesses who do not include their area code on signage do not have to do anything, while those who do include it, often unnecessarily, may have to). People may need to check their telephone directory for somebody's new area code and get in the habit of using that one instead. However, with time, this soon goes away, and people will forget that they were ever part of the area code from which they were split. On the other hand, when an overlay goes into place, forevermore, everyone must dial 10 digits. This nuisance, unlike that of remembering a new area code, will never go away, and is all the more aggrivating because there is no technical requirement mandating it. Your lifestyle is now permanently altered. It is thus blatantly clear which is the more sensible choice.

  The members of the Anti-Digit Dialing League are not alone in this conviction. In fact, surveys have shown that 60% to 70% of residential customers prefer a split, not an overlay, and an even higher percentage of businesses prefer a split — this in spite of the fact that many of them would have to change area codes (McLain, 1999, p. 4). It is clear that people prefer splits in order to benefit from the continued availability of 7-digit dialing. Most people would prefer this to being permanently burdened with the nuisance of 10-digit dialing, which is not intuitive and, apart from being a hassle, is an inefficiency that can lead to major productivity lost over the course of one's lifespan. This is particularly the case for those who are adversely affected, such as users of rotary phones and pulse dialing equipment as well as those who use vertical service codes. One person testified that she now has to dial as many as fourteen digits to complete a local call: *82 to unblock caller ID for those who aggravatingly insist on the usefulness of this easily spoofed calling feature, 1, then the area code, and the number. From a rotary phone, one would need to dial 15 digits to complete the same local call, as well as experience increased dialing time besides.

  — Membership —

  Help protect the integrity and usability of our phone network! Register your opposition to 10-digit dialing (and perhaps overlays as well, which are the main reason for its existence). Consider becoming a member of the Anti-Digit Dialing League — you may join this nationwide chapter or begin your own local chapter if you find that your area is at risk of falling victim to an overlay in the near future. Chapters and members are welcome to enlist the assistance of other members or the national chapter in coming to the defense of those preserving the usability of the network. Fifty-five years ago, we successfully rallied thousands of members in opposition to changing how phone numbers were listed in the directory. Today, we face a more pressing and urgent threat.

  Chapter Membership & A.D.D.L. List

  → Become A Member ←

  Have you joined the A.D.D.L.'s email listserv? All members are encouraged to join us in our discussions. ALL ideas welcome! To join, please send an email to [email protected] with your Membership ID Number in the body! This will help us expedite your request. Membership in the A.D.D.L. is encouraged but not required to join the A.D.D.L. listserv.

  Dues, none; donations, sought.

  — History —

  It all started with a want ad in San Francisco, following the Bell System's announcement that exchange names would gradually give way to all-number dialing. The A.D.D.L. traces its roots all the way back to our founder, San Francisco resident Carl V. May, who successfully organized thousands of telephone customers to oppose "creeping numeralism" in the summer of 1962, including semanticist S. I. Hayakawa, a professor at San Francisco State College and later Californian Republican Senator. From there, it spread to Los Angeles, where engineer Kent Gould opened a chapter. Momentum grew, and A.D.D.L. later even spread to the east coast. A.D.D.L. accquired an impressive following and made headlines in newspapers and even in TIME Magazine. Anti-digit dialing rhetoric was so powerful it even made its way into the music of the time.

  There were writers and intellectuals and a whole spectrum of people who opposed digit dialing because they felt it was taking away a familiar part of people's mental maps of their lives — James Katz

  All-Number Calling -- it is clear in hindsight -- stood in the minds of many for the age of the impersonal, when people live in huge apartment buildings, travel on eight-lane highways and identify themselves in many places -- bank, job, income tax return, credit agency -- by numbers — "Telephone: The First Hundred Years", John Brooks

  Michael Leddy has written some excellent information about the A.D.D.L. in these two blog posts:

  • Anti-Digit Dialing League
  • Phones Are For People

  Here are a couple newspaper articles in which the A.D.D.L. has been featured:

  • The Village Square (2/14/1963)
  • The Ogden Standard-Examiner (7/24/1962)
  • Number, Please!
  • The Code Master (2/22/1998)

  Other info/coverage:

  • ADDL - Nick vs Networking
• Phones Are For People