On This Day in Telephone History March 6TH 1960 First Large (26,000 telephones) All Number Calling (ANC) conversion happened in Council Bluffs, Iowa. As telephone usage increased, telephone numbers that began with name of an exchange were running out. Ray Babcock was hired to produce 10,000 names per month. By 1954, rather than using the full name of an exchange in a telephone number, ATT began listing numbers using only the first two letters of the exchange. Thus, the old PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was listed as PE6-5000. Additionally, as international dialing increased so did problems with alphabets and letter shape differences. The only logical solution was to change telephone numbers to all numeral. The first sizable place to introduce all numeral telephone numbers was in Council Bluffs, Iowa with 26,000 telephones.

On This Day in Telephone History March 6TH 1960

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On This Day in Telephone History March 6TH 1960 First Large All Number Calling (ANC) conversion happened.

As telephone usage increased, telephone numbers that began with name of an exchange were running out. Ray Babcock was hired to produce 10,000 names per month. By 1954, rather than using the full name of an exchange in a telephone number, ATT began listing numbers using only the first two letters of the exchange. Thus, the old PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was listed as PE6-5000. Additionally, as international dialing increased so did problems with alphabets and letter shape differences. The only logical solution was to change telephone numbers to all numeral. The first sizable place to introduce all numeral telephone numbers was in Council Bluffs, Iowa with 26,000 telephones.