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

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#Number_portability 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.