DATE: Wednesday, September 17, 1997         TAG: 9709170517

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   54 lines

NEW AREA CODE COMING TO THE ALBEMARLE NORTHEASTERN REGION WILL BEGIN USING THE 252 PREFIX IN MARCH

Get ready to change your modem, speed dial and stationery.

Beginning in March, northeastern North Carolina's area code will change to 252.

A record consumption of telephone numbers pushed the North Carolina Utilities Commission to create three new area codes for the state quickly.

And if demand keeps increasing at the same pace, the new area codes will last only four to five years.

``We've gone into a situation referred to as extraordinary jeopardy,'' said Hugh Gerringer, an engineer with the communications division of the Utilities Commission.

The 919 area code, in place here since 1954, will shrink to a relatively small region around Raleigh and Durham.

Each of the three current area codes in North Carolina - 704, 910 and 919 - supports 792 three-digit prefixes. Each prefix can support up to 9,999 four-digit numbers.

Because of the proliferation of fax machines, cellular phone companies, internet connections and business and home lines, prefixes have been used far more rapidly than predicted. Many of the prefixes are exclusive to cell phone companies or small towns that do not use all of the 9,999 numbers available.

``Some of them have less than 1,000 customers,'' Gerringer said.

Commissioners stopped issuing numbers for one week in August before creating a rationing system. Currently, commissioners will issue only five to seven new prefixes per month until the new area codes go into effect.

The Utilities Commission created the 910 area code for the central part of the state in 1994 and projected then that there would be enough numbers until 2002, said George Dudley, manager of external communications for Sprint.

Several states are experiencing similar problems, but only in populated regions.

``North Carolina may be one of the few in which the whole state is affected,'' Gerringer said.

Use of the 252 area code will begin March 22. Western North Carolina will be split to include the 704 and a new 828 area code beginning June 1.

Central North Carolina will be divided to include the 910 area code and the new 336 area code beginning Dec. 15.

Customers can use both new or old codes for six months after the beginning dates, Dudley said.

Sprint, one of 19 regulated phone companies in the state, is the second largest. The largest is Bell South. Eight other small companies that serve rural areas are not regulated. ILLUSTRATION: Map

The Virginian-Pilot

NEW NORTH CAROLINA AREA CODES

SOURCE: North Carolina Utilities Commission

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