The 10-digit telephone number celebrates its 25th anniversary

By Camille Lestienne Published

THE FIGARO ARCHIVES – On October 18, 1996, at 11 p.m., France added two digits to the telephone number. The culmination of a century of progress and diffusion of telephone services.

“This evening the French will count to 10,” Le Figaro announced on October 18, 1996. At 11 p.m., “with an accuracy of a billionth of a second, the 1,335 electronic exchanges of the national commuter network will automatically reprogram themselves to take into account ten-digit numbering. The French will then have to get used to adding two separate figures depending on the area of ​​residence. From 01 for Ile-de-France to 05 for the south-west quarter of France. The 06 is assigned to mobile, GSM and Bi-Bop services. The 16 between the Province and Paris disappears, just like the 19 abroad and the overseas territories, replaced by the 00. It is then a question of adapting to the explosion of telecommunications services and preparing the opening to the competetion. There were then 32 million subscribers and the demand for new numbers was estimated at one million per year.

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The era of the telephone ladies

A century earlier, in 1893, the first issues appeared in the major centers in the provinces, then three years later in the Passy and Wagram centers in Paris. Subscribers then numbered in the thousands in the capital while the first network appeared in 1880. It was the hatching of the "young ladies of the telephone", celebrated in the columns of Figaro by Marcel Proust, but much more often accused of all the evils when the call does not succeed. The job, however, is hard. These young women, recruited by competition and primarily girls, wives or sisters of postal employees, are on duty for seven hours in a row. Standing for a long time, in the 1890s they gained the right to be seated with more modern facilities. With their mouths facing a horn-shaped plate, the receivers "glued to the ears by means of a steel spring which passes over the back of the neck", they handle with "prodigious dexterity", according to Le Figaro in 1896, the rods which are placed in the Jacks and which are removed as soon as the communication is terminated". The caller, who previously had to give the name and address of the subscriber, now only has to give his five-digit subscription number. To reach Le Figaro, for example, in 1908 you had to ask for 102.46.

Automation and dial stations

From 1912, the numbers were made up of the full name of the exchange and a number, but the following year, a small revolution took its first steps. In Nice, the first tests of the automatic telephone invented by the American Almon B. Strowger were attempted in October 1913. The subscriber could then dial the number of his correspondent himself. However, the generalization of the system is slow, allowing manual and automatic exchanges to coexist for a long time to come. It was not until 1928 that the automatic telephone began to be installed in Paris, first at the Carnot exchange. The numbers are then made up of the first three letters of the exchange - CAR for Carnot, ODE for Odéon - followed by twice two digits. In 1932, Le Figaro installed at the Champs-Élysées roundabout can be reached at ELYsées-98-31 until 98-38. Subscribers are then provided with dial sets “presenting a crown of circular windows where the numbers and letters are inscribed”.

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A phenomenal delay

In 1955, it was decided to stop using letters for the numbering, which increased to six digits at the regional level accompanied by a two-digit prefix designating the department. The Paris region expects 1963. Paris then goes to seven figures. The famous BALzac 00-01 by Jean Mineur, well known to moviegoers, becomes 225-00-01. However, France is lagging behind in the deployment of telephone lines. In 1968, only 15.2% of households were equipped, 11% in rural communes, less than 4% among workers. Calls still often take place in post offices immortalized in Fernand Reynaud's sketch, the "22 in Asnières". Telephone operators were still very often at the helm until the 1970s.

Switching to eight digits then ten

Finally, in 1985, a new numbering plan was introduced on October 25. The numbers go to eight digits for the 23 million subscribers in the country. Paris and its suburbs, already with seven digits, gain the prefix 4, 6 or 3, Lyon and its region the 7, the Moselle the 8. Elsewhere, the two-digit regional prefix is ​​added. "90% of households now have telephones, welcomes Le Figaro, and at the rate of one million lines per year, France will be fully equipped in 1987." Connection times that could be several years in the 1960s are now met in less than 15 days for 80% of requests. In the meantime, considerable efforts have been made thanks to the priority action plan imposed by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1974 and subsequently followed by the socialist government. In ten years, from 1975 to 1985, 150 billion francs were invested, enabling France to catch up with its European neighbors with 40.5 main lines per 100 inhabitants.

But now, eleven years later, the eight figures are no longer enough. We go to ten, a new system which should make it possible to meet demand until 2040 according to France Telecom which, for the occasion, is orchestrating a vast communication campaign of six months and 120 million francs. “Currently, 32 million subscribers are connected, decrypts Le Figaro, and demand remains explosive, exceeding one million new numbers per year. And it does not seem about to stop: trivialization of the fax, generalization of the mobile phone, increasing popularity of Internet connections and choice between different private operators”. Because the opening to competition is looming for January ¹ , 1998.

In the meantime, on D-Day, at zero hour, 3,500 company agents, including 2,000 technicians, are on deck for the big changeover. Who remembers that at that moment also disappeared the succession of small beeps which followed the dialing of the number?