In North America, telephone area codes cannot begin with 0 or 1. Since North America's international telephone area code is 1, and within North America, the digit 1 indicates long-distance calls, North American telephone area codes do not begin with 1. Telephone area codes cannot begin with N11 or N9X (N = 2–9, X = 0–9). N11 numbers are reserved for short codes, and N9X are reserved for future expansion.