Yeah, I knew all or most of that, but it isn't really relevant, and I thought I'd avoid confusing the issue more than it already is. When you get down to it, it's still the ILECs that control the phone numbers. They're just required to work as a distributor in addition to a retailer. And assuming that he doesn't want to deal with VoIP providers, I seriously doubt that he wants to deal with CLECs that aren't ILECs elsewhere. They're way less professional to deal with IME. And I doubt he's going to find any CLEC that's going to want to sell him one phone number from each area code.

Oh, another thing, Rolf. Just because a phone number is in the same area code as another does not mean that a call between them would be local. And, inversely, just because it's in another area code doesn't mean that it's long distance. For example, New York City has half a dozen area codes, if not more, but they're all local calls from within the city. But a call from Missoula, Montana to Glendive, Montana, about 500 miles apart, is probably going to be a long distance call, despite being in the same area code.

And to add more confusion, most cell phones these days have free long distance. It's no more expensive to call across the country with them than it is to call next door.