A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunications to allocate telephone numbers to subscribers and to route telephone calls in a telephone network. A closed numbering plan, such as found in North America, imposes a fixed total length to numbers. An open numbering plan features variance in the length of telephone numbers.
A dial plan establishes the expected number and pattern of digits for a telephone number. This includes country codes, access codes, area codes and all combinations of digits dialed. For instance, the North American public switched telephone network (PSTN) uses a 10-digit dial plan that includes a 3-digit area code and a 7-digit telephone number. Most PBXs support variable-length dial plans that use 3 to 11 digits. Dial plans must comply with the telephone networks to which they connect.
Read more about Telephone Numbering Plan: History, Structure, Standards, Satellite Phone Numbering Plans, Special Services, Numbering Plans By Global Regions, Dial Plan Syntax, Numbering Plan Indicator
Famous quotes containing the words telephone, numbering and/or plan:
“It is possible that the telephone has been responsible for more business inefficiency than any other agency except laudanum.... In the old days when you wanted to get in touch with a man you wrote a note, sprinkled it with sand, and gave it to a man on horseback. It probably was delivered within half an hour, depending on how big a lunch the horse had had. But in these busy days of rush-rush-rush, it is sometimes a week before you can catch your man on the telephone.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“The task he undertakes
Is numbering sands and drinking oceans dry.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“People commonly educate their children as they build their houses, according to some plan they think beautiful, without considering whether it is suited to the purposes for which they are designed.”
—Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu (1689–1762)