Since the topic has been brought up - just how did the first three digits
of phone numbers (not the area code) get started or assigned?  Is it a
regional development from the early local company number assignments (such
as "Operator ... W-7 please")?  when I was a kid (not too long ago!) we had
Oldfield 5 which translated on the dial as 655, but no one ever seemed to
know where the "Oldfield" came from - which came first - the numbers or the
letters?  Were they devised on some logical plan like the compass system
used on the Rural Indexes?  Was it a local thing devised by the local
companies and then modified when they were gobbled up by Ma Bell???

Just curious.

Dan W.