ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601180052
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DALLAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE NEW NUMBERS will be more than a handful. And like the '60s when local calls went to seven digits, some people today see this kind of progress as particularly forgettable.
Might as well get a jump on the game and learn how to use that autodialer on your phone. The 10-digit local phone number is inevitable.
The burgeoning use of fax machines, beepers, modems and cellular phones is rapidly using up the numbers available with current area codes. So, all those devices that were supposed to make life easier mean new area codes are being implemented in 23 parts of the country this year, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
With those new codes will come new dialing instructions and eventually more numbers to punch each time you dial a local call.
``Ten-digit dialing is going to be reality,'' said Southwestern Bell spokesman Chris Talley.
But that doesn't mean that people are ready to make the switch.
In Texas, for example, opposition has cropped up concerning a proposed move to 10-digit dialing. The arguments have been accompanying a two-year debate on two new area codes in the state - 281 in Houston and 972 in Dallas.
The Texas Public Utility Commission has been considering two proposals. One would assign new area codes to new telephone owners, who would in turn be forced to use 10-digit dialing.
Under the second proposed plan, area codes would be split geographically, with customers who live near downtown Houston or Dallas keeping their numbers. More than a million suburban customers in each city would get new numbers in the new area codes.
Southwestern Bell opposes that system, saying suburban customers would be too inconvenienced by geographically zoned area codes.
Instead the phone company is calling for an overlaid plan, which could give even next-door neighbors different area codes. There would be no long-distance charges for the local calls.
Southwestern Bell's critics oppose the overlay, saying the company would have an advantage in issuing new numbers to customers. But most still agree that 10-digit dialing is bound to happen.
``If you look at the industry historically that seems to be the next logical step,'' said Alfred Herrera, a senior counsel for MCI. ``That may be true, but not necessarily now.''
Phone numbers once began with alphabet identifiers until the number of telephones outgrew the system. Phone numbers then required four, then five, digits until again the number of telephones outgrew the system.
Now, most of the country is at seven-digit local dialing. And we're outgrowing the system.
``The same arguments we hear against 10-digit dialing were said against seven-digit dialing in the '60s,'' said Chino Chapa, a spokesman for Southwestern Bell. ``People want to remain with what they know.''
In fact, during the 1960s there was such opposition to seven-digit dialing that a California-based Anti-Digit Dialing League formed.
``They produced psychiatrists saying people couldn't remember seven digits,'' said Chapa.
Now, they will have to learn 10.
``Many large parts of the country are experiencing 10-digit dialing,'' said Talley of Southwestern Bell. New York City has different area codes, as does Washington, D.C.
But Ben Klein, 42, of Houston says 10-digit dialing would be too confusing. And other opponents ask why the company couldn't simply issue the new area codes to fax machines and cellular phones, although that solution was once called anti-competitive by the FCC.
``If technology caused it, why not let technology solve it?'' one woman asked at a public hearing.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. The popularity of cellular telephones (such as theby CNBone at the bottom of the photo), fax machines and modems have
numbered the days of the seven-digit system.