BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- The 933 prefix for Warren County government office phone numbers is going the way of the telegraph.
Starting Oct. 1, the three-digit prefix starts its road to becoming obsolete. It will be changed to 695 for all calls made in the Lebanon area to county government offices.
Callers will have a month to use both prefixes before 933 is scrapped. After Nov. 1, those using 933 when calling government offices will hear a recording telling them to call back using 695.
"Our government offices are growing so much we need a lot more numbers than what Sprint could supply (using a 933 prefix)," said Adela Dingman, data communications specialist in the county Telecommunications Department.
All other prefixes for residents calling county offices from outside Lebanon will stay the same, she said. That includes calls from Cincinnati using 925, from Dayton using 885 and from Middletown using 420.
Part of the reason Sprint ran out of numbers for the county was because growing numbers of residents in Lebanon also were issued numbers with 933 prefixes, Ms. Dingman said. Those numbers will not change.
The county has also seen an explosion in needed phone lines due to fax machines and Internet connections, said Richard Elliott, director of telecommunications for the county.
Ten years ago, the county had 150 phone lines, Mr. Elliott said. Now it has 10,000 lines in reserve, although only 2,000 are currently being used.
It will take about two years before the public fully catches on to the change and the old numbers are reissued, he said.
"There's always a little pain involved in it," Mr. Elliott said.
"People need to reprogram their automatic dialers and change publications and letterheads and business cards. It's not pretty."
