Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Incorrect Use of Area Code 202 Message-ID:Date: 14 Aug 89 21:01:34 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 15 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 296, message 4 of 8 I have seen 2 recent cases where area code 202 was used in front of a Maryland number which has metro DC-area service but is beyond area 202 (they are only in area 301). In one case, 202-621 was displayed on the back of a panel truck. In the other case, 202-261 was displayed in a fast-food restaurant in an employment ad. Both cases had other phone numbers displayed; the ones I singled out were provided for callers from the Washington area. I have seen 621, which is in Laurel, used for this purpose by a few businesses in the Baltimore area. Before DC-area prefixes were changed from NNX to NXX form, long-distance dialing from 261 and 621 was 1+7D within Md., and 1+NPA+7D elsewhere. (But in Virginia, from 703-860, in Herndon and local to DC but toll to Md., you dialed NPA+7D for all long distance, and Herndon metro-area prefixes 471 and 620 appear on phone bills as VIENNA and are in area code 202, not just 703.)