Tuesday, August 10, 1999
Changing area codes a nuisance
New phone numbers open almost daily
BY ELSA C. ARNETT
Knight Ridder News Service
What if you were given a new 10-digit telephone number, then had to change it again? What if your next-door neighbor or even your daughter's bedroom were in a different area code? What if you called 911 and the rescue squad had no idea where you were?
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are suffering such agonies these days as an explosion of cell phones, fax machines, beepers and Internet connections is fueling a red-hot demand for new phone numbers. The number of area codes has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, and the last area code is expected to be issued sometime in 2007.
But much of that growth, and the trouble that has come with it, is needless, experts say. Fewer than 40 percent of the phone numbers that have been distributed are in use.
Many numbers unused
The problem is that local phone companies have automatically been given big blocks of numbers, a large percentage of which are not used. This adds up to many millions of numbers that have never rung.
“It is a nuisance and a waste,” said Seamus Glynn, associate director of the Citizens Utility Board, a Chicago consumer group, who spotted the unused numbers early.
To alleviate this glut, local lawmakers, state agencies and consumer advocates are urging state and federal regulators to change the system.
The Chicago and New York metropolitan areas are experimenting with a system called “pooling,” which reduces the number blocks passed out to phone companies from 10,000 to 1,000. Experts estimate that pooling nationwide could extend the life of the current area code plan by more than 75 years.
Florida, New York and Massachusetts are among other states petitioning federal regulators to find ways to conserve numbers.
Charge for numbers?
The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comment on proposals to make phone companies document their needs for numbers and return unused numbers.
The FCC is also considering whether to charge telephone companies for use of the numbers and to require them to report their usage rates and their forecasts for future use.
“We are working to address these issues as quickly as possible,” said FCC official Blaise Scinto. The agency hopes to issue its new rules in the winter.
Some communities have been so worried about the potential economic toll that they have successfully fought off new codes.
“We are struggling hard to make a future for our area,” said Leslie Combs, president of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce in economically depressed eastern Kentucky. “Adding another area code would lead to a lot of confusion ... raise our cost of doing business, and make it harder to attract business and industry.”
The chamber's arguments, echoed by community leaders, persuaded state regulators this month to leave Pike's 606 area code in place for now.
Meanwhile, cities that only recently got new area codes are discovering that those numbers are already near capacity. Oregon, for example, introduced a new area code four years ago. It is now expected to be filled by 2002 — 11 years earlier than planned.
California, which started with three area codes a half-century ago, is expected to have 27 by the end of the year. By 2002, it may have as many as 40.
“Between 1947, when area codes started, and the mid-1990s, we were adding about four or five area codes a year,” said Rebecca Barnhart, spokeswoman for the North American Numbering Plan Administration, which runs the area code system. NANPA is managed by Lockheed Martin Corp. under a federal contract. “Now we are adding about 25 to 30 new area codes a year.”
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