Get Ready for 10-Digit Dialing
On Saturday the Triangle becomes the next region of the country to implement mandatory 10-digit dialing. The numbers from the 919 area code are exhausted, and instead of breaking part of that geographical region off into a new zip code (as was done in the past) the area will become home to two area codes, known as an “overlay”. New numbers will have a 984 area code instead of 919, and because the codes coexist in the same area, all callers will have to dial the area code when calling any number beginning Friday.
I received a text message notice about the upcoming change about a month ago from my carrier, Verizon. However my land line service is thru Vonage, and they have sent absolutely no notice of the upcoming change. Have you gotten notice from your landline carrier yet?
The change resurrects many old questions, though. If we have to dial 10 digits to call next door, then why do we have to use the “1+” prefix to dial numbers “outside of our area code”? The duality that exists between national calling on landlines that require the prefix and cellular services which have never used the prefix is baffling, for sure.
Even more interesting, though, is the question raised by Nilay Patel, a writer at the Verge: Why do we even have phone numbers? Phone numbers tied to a location and the technologies that have emerged in the last 15 years don’t seem to be compatible concepts. With Microsoft, Google, and Apple trying to unseat the two big telephony technologies, it’s likely that in 15 more years the model will have changed so much, that there could be plenty of available phone numbers in the 919 area code.
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March 26th, 2012 at 8:14 pm
In the end it all comes down to a number. Either an IP or a phone number. Maybe it’s time for a DNS type of system for phone numbers? But once you assign a name to a number in your address book you don’t have to worry about it anymore. And with no long distance charges for mobile services does it really matter what your phone number is?
March 26th, 2012 at 9:30 pm
State regulators still require +1 dialing on landline calls beyond a local calling area so that people know when they are making a long-distance call. Grandpa and Grandma, who still have landlines, care about that. A surprising number of them don’t have any kind of a long-distance calling plan.
No wireless carrier, so far as I know, has ever imposed a +1 dialing requirement. And most of them went to mandatory 10-digit dialing a long time back.
As for number exhaust in the 919 area code, the fact is that businesses, organizations, and governments have most of the numbers now. Those numbers aren’t going away in the foreseeable future.
The alternative to overlay area codes and mandatory 10-digit dialing for local numbers was to adopt 8-digit local telephone numbers. It could have been done 30 years ago before the explosion of wireless. The traditional 201-219, 301-319, etc area codes could have been retained. Tokyo, Paris, and London have done fine with 8-digit local numbers. You’d think we could have, too.