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It appears inevitable that we in the 847 area code will sometime soon be forced to dial an area code for every call. But, when that day ultimately arrives, it should be 10 digits, not 11.
When area codes were first introduced, we dialed 10 digits for long-distance numbers. It wasn’t until they ran out of area codes with 0 or 1 as the middle digit that we began to have to dial 1 to alert the telephone network that the next three digits would be an area code.
If all calls (except 411, 911, etc.) require an area code, then there is no reason to require a 1 to tell the system that. It’s bad enough to have to dial three extra digits, but there’s no need to make it four.
