I can only speak for the States, but once upon a time the local "exchanges" (the telephone offices with the operators and equipment to route phone calls) had names. So (for example) the local exchange where I grew up was "Alpine," and the phones it serviced were Alpine1234, Alpine2468, and so on. When dial phones became popular (so a person could place a call without talking to an operator!) then the first two letters of exchange names were converted to numbers — AL => 25.

Even as a kid in the early 1960s, it was not uncommon to see a phone number as either "Alpine-61042" or "256-1042" (seven digits! OMG! who can remember all those?!).

Then along came areas codes, so it was possible to make a "long distance call" (which might be another state, but might be another part of a large state) without talking to an operator first. And suddenly a call from Chicago to New York could be done by just knowing a 10-digit number. Not the exchange that serviced the phone. Not the geographic location of the exchange (the operator could look it up, but that took extra time as she shuffled through huge telephone books).

Calling someone "far away" used to take extensive knowledge, and not just on the caller's part. And now, of course, we can say, "Hey Siri, call my brother, mobile," and it just happens, without us knowing ANY numbers! 😁