What Can You Find Out About a Phone Number?

What Can You Find Out About a Phone Number?

A telephone number is essentially an address in numerical form. It can be thought of similarly to the IP address used by your computer on the internet. Though different countries have varying lengths of telephone numbers - for example, European countries have numbers ranging from 5 to 6 digits in smaller towns and over 10 digits in larger cities.

In the United States and other NANP countries, however, the phone numbers have a fixed lengths, totaling 10 digits. Since NANP has been in use, the phone numbers have been broken into three blocks, arranged as follows:

Area Code Prefix Line Number
NXX NXX XXXX

The area code is regulated by the FCC and is designated to a different geographical region. They frequently represent a full state, but sometimes parts of states, or cities.

The prefix was originally connected to a specific three-digit number of the specific switch at the central office of the phone carrier. Computerized switches took over, allowing for local number portability (LNP), meaning that customer telephone numbers can move among switches without having to change, including the prefix, as long as there isn't a local-rate area change.

The line number is assigned to the phone line at the switch level. The number is assigned to the line, not to the telephone, so several phones can be used, and phones can be changed.

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