Didn't realize the local calling area around Houston had ever changed, but I suppose it's not all that surprising. By the early 90's, you could call 100 miles away into a completely different state and time zone locally from Atlanta. Thinking about my nieces' generation, they wouldn't even understand paying for long distance calling. The oldest of my nieces turns 20 in about six months, and she has never paid for an individual phone call. She has family in Mexico on her dad's side, and she's seen the ads for cheap calling cards to Mexico in the Mexican grocery stores near her house. So, she has some idea that people still do it, but the concept is foreign to the point of being almost incomprehensible today to your average American her age. I worked for the phone company from 1997 to 2001 with a brief break in '99. We often talked about long distance being something that wouldn't be metered in the next 20 years and would just be included in your phone bill. We knew it would happen, but we didn't know it would happen about two years after I left. It was Spring 2003 when I first saw the ads for unlimited long distance starting at $54.95/month. There's a good chance phone numbers will be a thing of the past altogether in our lifetime.
