The declining relevance of area codes

I was talking to Anne yesterday about area codes and their increasing loss of significance. The high rate of transience among recent college grads coupled with the high rate of cell phone usage among the same demographic means area codes are getting fractured. I still have a (315) number from Central New York, even though I live in the DC area. Ditto with Anne, with her Chicago area code. Even though I’d like to get a snazzy (202) Washington, DC number, I’m not looking forward to updating my number with everyone I know or do business with. This Wired News article deals with some of these issues, though it concentrates on them from a business perspective.

Combine the fracturing of area codes due to cell phones with the need to always dial ten-digit numbers in many metropolitan areas and you come up with phone numbers lacking any sense of significance or locality. They are simply indices through which connections from one party to another may be made. Which may have been the idea all along.