Profile America — Sunday, November 24th. A key part of daily telecommunications is 62 years old this month, as direct-dial telephone area codes for transcontinental calling were introduced in 1951. The mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, made the first official call, picking up the phone and directly called his counterpart in Alameda, California. At the time, all long distance calls went through an operator. To begin with, there were 86 exchanges, but the vast expansion in cell phone usage means the U.S. is fast running out of 10-digit phone numbers. American residential customers on average pay $434 annually for their home telephone service and $712 for cell phone usage. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy from the American Community Survey at www.census.gov.
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau
