Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992 TAG: 9201310012
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mag Poff
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
OLD NUMBERS DON'T DIE, THEY'RE RECYCLED
Move across town and chances are that, before you hang the last knick-knack, your old telephone number will ring on someone else's line.And if you change numbers today, it will be 14 months before your new listing is in the phone book. That's because the 1992-1993 telephone directory that Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. will distribute throughout the Roanoke Valley in early April contains numbers in effect as of mid-January.
So before your new number is in print, you may have to take calls for the person who previously was assigned your new phone number. And the person to whom your former number is recycled probably will have to field some of your calls.
Confused?
Donald C. Reid, Roanoke manager for Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., said people disconnect from telephone numbers for a variety of reasons.
They may move to a new town, for instance, or opt for an unlisted phone number. Maybe they are disconnected for failing to pay a bill.
But even a short-distance move, such as from Cave Spring, where most phone numbers start with 774, to North Lakes, where the prefix is 562, requires a new number.
Reid said standard telephone company policy is to hold a disconnected residential number out of service for 90 days.
But if a telephone exchange is nearing capacity, the number could be recycled sooner. That seldom happens, Reid said, because "we're pretty doggone good at measuring growth at the central office."
"We have to be efficient, we have to be economical," Reid said. The telephone company "can't have numbers sitting there not earning" or it would have to impose a rate increase. Numbers must be recycled to keep expenses under control, he said.
The number of lines in service grows continuously, Reid said. C&P recently added switches in the Cove Road and Garden City areas, creating new prefix numbers to handle more lines.
A business number, because of the large number of calls it receives, is held out of new service for a year or for the life of the current directory, whichever comes sooner.
During those periods C&P operators intercept the old number and refer callers to the new one.
Until five to 10 years ago, Reid said, disconnected residential numbers were held out of new service for six months. The change was made, he said, because "we feel 90 days fits the needs of most of our customers . . . I can't remember the last complaint from a customer."
But complaints do surface. Reid recalled a customer who was assigned a dentist's former home number. The new customer received calls in the middle of the night from patients struck by throbbing toothaches.
That customer got another new number. If a number causes an unusual burden for people who get it, Reid said, "we change it at no cost to them."
There also is a way out for people who object to C&P's reassignment system. They can hold a number in reserve - for a fee, $1.50 a month if they get residential service and $3.50 a month for a business. Most people who reserve numbers, however, pay the fee because they want a specific easy-to-remember combination for a business.
"For however long you pay the $1.50, we will hold it for you," Reid said.
Another possibility is use of remote call forwarding, which allows customers to transfer calls automatically to a new line in another part of town.
Reid said customers also have the option of choosing their own telephone number as well. As long as nobody else is using it, a customer can claim a specific set of digits for a one-time flat fee of $25. Businesses must pay $100 for the same option.
Customers can even take their former numbers with them.
The family moving from Cave Spring to North Lakes, for instance, could carry along the old 774 number.
C&P calls that type of service "foreign central office." Reid said the cost depends on the exact mileage involved and other factors, but he estimated the one-time fee might range from $100 to $300.
Then there's "foreign exchange" service. That means you can take your Roanoke number to your new home in Blacksburg or Lynchburg or Richmond. Reid said that would involve mileage charges for each call in addition to the initial fee.
That service usually is used by businesses that want a local number in another community, such as a Blacksburg auto dealership with a local number for its Roanoke customers to use, or a radio station with call-in numbers throughout its listening area.
But all of this could become academic before you can say modem.
Reid said C&P's parent, Bell Atlantic, is preparing for the day when the Yellow Page classifieds and the regular listings are available electronically.
Customers then will be able to access the very latest directory listings as soon as the telephone company enters them into the system. Printed directories will go the way of rotary dialing.
No date has been set for this high-tech service, Reid said. But he wouldn't be surprised to see it happen in about five years.
Mag Poff covers banking, personal finance, real estate and advertising for the Roanoke Times & World-News.