THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 14, 1995 TAG: 9507140535
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Virginia's days as a two-area-code state are numbered.
Starting 2 a.m. Saturday, the 703 telephone code, which covers the northern and western parts of the state, will be radically reduced in size, and a new code - 540 - will service the remaining area.
The change was forced by a rapid growth in phone numbers over the past decade as the state's population swelled and more people signed up for pagers and cellular phones.
From Saturday through Jan. 26, 1996, people calling a number in the new 540 code can dial either 540 or 703 first. The grace period expires starting Jan. 27.
Businesses with Private Branch Exchange, or PBX phone systems, may have to upgrade their phone systems because some old systems don't allow calls into area codes that don't have ``0'' or ``1'' as a middle digit. The 540 code is one of the first in the country to have a middle digit other than ``0'' or ``1.''
Cities in the new 540 code include Winchester, Harrisonburg, Staunton, Roanoke, Blacksburg, Bedford and Martinsville. The populous Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington will remain in 703.
Bell Atlantic-Virginia said the 804 code, which covers eastern and central Virginia, will not change. But it announced earlier this year that 804 may have to be divided - again because of a growth in phone numbers - in 1998. That would give Virginia four area codes. ILLUSTRATION: Color map by John Corbitt, Staff
by CNB