ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300027
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: Associated Press
AFTER FRIDAY, remember to dial 757 is you're trying to telephone a friend on the Eastern Shore or in the Tidewater area. The 804 code has been retired for that area.
The change in the area code for Virginia's Tidewater area and the Eastern Shore will become permanent Saturday, when the old 804 area code will stop working.
Callers who use the old code over the next year will hear a recording reminding them to use 757.
And as the new area code takes hold, the state is considering adding yet another code, this time in northern Virginia.
The 757 area code was carved out of the 804 area code last July 1. Since then, callers have been able to dial calls using either code. The grace period ends Saturday.
``Hopefully, it's not going to surprise anybody, but we'll see,'' said Paul Miller, a spokesman for Bell Atlantic in Richmond.
``I suspect that the people in Hampton Roads and southeastern Virginia will not see this as a surprise,'' Miller said Wednesday. ``If we encounter problems, more than likely it will be people trying to call into 757. That's where our concern is.''
Businesses that have internal switchboards also may experience some trouble, Miller said. Older switchboards that only recognize area codes with a `0' or `1' in the middle must be upgraded. All of those area codes have been used, he said.
Cellular telephones also need to be reprogrammed to recognize the 757 area code.
With the introduction of 757, Virginia now has four area codes; 804 will continue to serve central Virginia; 703 remains in northern Virginia; 540 began serving the western part of the state in 1995.
Another area code will be added in northern Virginia, probably by the end of 1998, Miller said.
The new area codes are needed because telephone numbers are being depleted with the increasing use of pagers, fax machines, cellular telephones and computers with modems, Miller said.
In December, Bell Atlantic and other telecommunications companies in the state agreed a fifth area code is needed.
Bell Atlantic wants the new area code to follow the same geographic boundaries as the 703 code. The ``overlay'' approach would mean that current phone customers would continue to use 703 while new customers would be assigned the new area code.
In other words, two neighbors could have two different area codes, although calls between their houses would not be charged at long-distance rates.
Some of the other companies proposed an area code based upon a split of the 703 geographic area. The State Corporation Commission will decide which plan to use.
New York City already uses an overlay area code, but that is just for pagers and cellular phones.
Several cities, such as Pittsburgh, have proposed using overlays, Miller said. Maryland is the first state to approve statewide overlays, he said.
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