THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280242
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Back when John Q. Public only had two phone numbers - home and work - the people at Bellcore's North American Numbering Plan had an easy job.
When the population in an area code grew large enough to nearly exhaust the available phone numbers, Bellcore simply created another area code and the old was one divided in two.
Between the late 1940s - when the first area codes were assigned - and the early 1980s, it happened about once a year.
Then came cellular phones, faxes and pagers. Suddenly, area codes ran out of phone numbers a lot quicker. This year alone, about a dozen new codes will be created in the United States.
Virginia's days as a two-code state are numbered. Starting July 15, the western half of the state will be carved out of 703 and given a new code: 540.
And by 1998, the 804 area code, which covers southeastern and central Virginia, may have to be divided in two, Bell Atlantic Corp. said Monday.
Splitting area codes is often messy. Communities squabble for the right to retain the old code. Towns that border the old and new are torn by which is the better to be part of.
``There will be folks who will not be content with the way they do it, no matter what they do, I promise you,'' said Bellcore spokesman Ken Branson. Bellcore is a Livingston, N.J.-based technology company, co-owned by the Baby Bell phone companies, that is in charge of area-code administration.
``But the arithmetic is inexorable,'' Branson said. ``Doing nothing is not an option.''
Paul Miller, a Bell Atlantic-Virginia spokesman, said if precedent is followed, Hampton Roads will retain the 804 and Richmond and other central Virginia communities will get a new code. The larger community typically keeps the old code, he said.
Another possibility: an area-code ``overlay.'' In this system, new telephones hooked up in the territory of the old area code are assigned a new code. Theoretically, next-door neighbors in this system could have different area codes.
Miller said it's too early to tell how things will work out in 804. Though Bell Atlantic is the moving party in the process, other phone companies serving the area code - GTE Corp., for instance - will have a say. So will state regulators and customers.
Public opinion matters. Miller pointed out that the northern Virginia town Leesburg was initially removed from the 703 code in the pending division of that code, but was put back in after civic leaders there complained about joining 540.
The 703 code covered all of Virginia until 1972, when 804 was carved out of it.
Explosive growth in the Washington area is forcing 703's latest division, Miller said. The area code has only 50 unused three-digit exchanges, compared with 174 unused exchanges in 804.
The exchanges are being used up so fast in 703 that Bell Atlantic has had to shorten from one year to six months a grace period in which it will allow callers into or within the new 540 code to use either 703 or 540. The grace period now will expire Jan. 27, 1996, Miller said.
Bellcore's Branson stressed that businesses using Private Branch Exchange phone systems need to ensure their systems are modified to allow calling into the new exchange.
Many such PBX systems were built at the time Bellcore only allocated area codes with ``0'' or ``1'' as middle digits. All such codes were exhausted in 1993.
There's another solution to the nation's area-code problem: just add another digit to everybody's phone number.
Branson said that's what the United Kingdom will do April 16. America's telecommunications leaders decided the United States isn't up to that challenge, however.
``You think about it and your jaw drops,'' Branson said. ``The idea of it: all 250 million of us having to learn how to do something different on the same day?'' ILLUSTRATION: Color map by John Corbitt, Staff
KEYWORDS: AREA CODE by CNB