Talk:Zenith number

Winchester Airport
What does Winchester Airport have to do with Zenith Numbers? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.78.13.83 (talk) 23 November 2006 17:16:05 (UTC)

On the List provided, I believe the number listed for Nevada Highway Patrol is actually California. And UCLA, USC, UCSB and Rand probably do not have the same Zenith number. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.215.140.27 (talk) 07:26, 22 October 2007 (UTC)


 * "Town of Winchester, Ontario ambulance dispatcher Zenith 9000" does look questionable as it's not the same length as the others. This should have "zenith" followed by a five-digit number. The numbers only covered a specific regional area (as the recipient of these operator-assisted collect calls wouldn't want them coming from all over in that era of expensive long distance service) so it's possible that the same number dialled from some other region might not give the same result. All thoroughly obsolete by now in any case. K7L (talk) 07:04, 24 December 2012 (UTC)


 * When I was growing up in Ontario, all Zenith numbers had five digits. Then when I acquired a Yukon telephone directory in 1976, I found that it had four-digit Zenith numbers for use within the company's operating area. From that, I made the assumption that four-digit numbers were only issued for local companies in the Yukon for receiving calls within the operating area of that phone company (Yukon, western NWT, northern BC). It is also possible that each company fashioned Zenith numbers appropriate to the presence or absence of usage across company territory boundaries. Yukon/western NWT/northern BC did not get access to 800 service until 1984, and the ability of northern businesses to have their own 800 numbers until 1987, so Zenith remained vitally important long after other company territories began migration to 800 services. GBC (talk) 18:52, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

In some older phones, 0 also had "Z" or "QZ" on it. So, dialing Zenith would require dialing a 0. Dsm (talk) 00:07, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Z not on telephone dials back then?
I have seen telephones from the 1950s, and they did, in fact, have Z - but on the number zero, which meant they couldn't be the first letter of telephone exchanges as you would get the operator when you dialed the 0 for Z. I would not be surprised if calling it something that started with Z has something to do with this. -- That Don Guy (talk) 16:14, 28 November 2013 (UTC)


 * This 1950's phone doesn't have a Z on the dial; the 0 position just says "0" and "OPERATOR". Guy Harris (talk) 07:07, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Available in 1930s: proof
The Library of Congress has digital images of many old telephone directories. Here's an example: 1930s directory, Glendale, California TooManyFingers (talk) 16:46, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Good find. kbrose (talk) 20:44, 3 June 2023 (UTC)