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Casteele -> RE: any idea why this is and why? (1/1/2012 7:38:57 PM)
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There's a reason why telco's typically list "long distance" calls using the wording "toll calls" instead: The exchange rate is not based on physical distance so much as the number of exchange stations that the call has to route through to reach it's destination (and other factors, but I don't want to get too technical here :-P). In some cities on state borders, the border can go right down the middle of your street and calling the neighbor across the street is considered an interstate toll call and billed as such.
In the US, a number is (XXX) YYY-ZZZZ, where ZZZZ is the subscriber number, YYY is the exchange number, and the XXX is the regional number (aka the area code). Originally, the numbers were assigned by geographic regions.. The regional was just that and often aligned with geopolitical boundaries. The exchange was often assigned to a single city (or a single district within a larger city if the city was very large), and the subscriber number assigned according to which block or city zone they were in. In the past, calls between different regional and exchange number was typically a physically long distance, so we got used to calling them "long distance." But today, with portable numbers (I still have a 586 area code on my cell phone, which I originally purchased in Detroit, Michigan, which has the 586 area code, but I'm now living in Bethesda, Maryland with a 301 area code.), and reallocation of entire blocks of numbers due to decreasing supply and increasing demand, it's become a lot more blurry.
Almost all PSTN (public switched telephone network) devices with any intelligence, such as cell phones, have lists which indicate which exchange numbers are "local." Anything not on that list is "toll," regardless of how near or far it is.
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