New Phone Area Zones For Vietnam

Given that the 80-million odd living Vietnamese use 123-million PLUS active cell handsets area codes are becoming a little redundant, although cell systems have geographic numbering plans.

North America, and some other parts of the world, cling to the geographic identifiers for cell systems but they have had to destroy the original smart concept of the area code numbering plan due to the unending increase in cell numbers.

The change to 8-digit numbering plans in HCM a couple of years ago was made, partly, due to the planned geographic expansion of the city. The Ha Noi introduction of the 8-digit numbering plan was political ... can't have HCM outdoing the capital.

The international telephone numbering plan doesn't apply to VietNam as, usually, capital cities are a '1' or '2' area codes.

The North American plan was based on the fastest dialling sequence using rotary dials. 212 New York, 213 Los Angeles, 202 Washington, DC, 312 Chicago. Michigan has dog of a number - 989!

HongKong, 852, was especially selected using push-button telephones - straight up the middle (of the dial). All the '8' numbers were reserved for China and region - 8 being a lucky number. 258 is the country code for Mozambique.

Of course, North America has the coveted pole position - '1'!

However, in the VN Postcode Plan, Ha Noi has the 'highest' - 10000.

Wars, or at least big diplomatic fights, have involved numbers.