THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 2, 1996 TAG: 9602020404
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Clip this out or jot it down. And tell your friends and relatives elsewhere.
You can start using our new area code, 757, on July 1. But it won't become mandatory until Feb. 1, 1997.
On Thursday, the phase-in schedule for the new code was set, by the coalition of telecommunications companies that decided in December to break Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore out of 804.
They decided to give us seven months to get used to the new code by establishing a grace period that will let callers use either 804 or 757 when dialing numbers in the region. That grace period begins July 1, and it will end on the last day of January 1997.
Hampton Roads' days as an 804 area are numbered because of the rapid growth in use of cellular phones, pagers and faxes. In recent years that has left fewer and fewer unused three-digit exchanges.
Dozens of other regions of the country have been forced into an area-code change in the past two years. So many new codes have been issued, in fact, that no more codes remain with ``0'' or ``1'' as the middle digit. That's how Hampton Roads ended up with 757. ILLUSTRATION: Can start using new area code July 1, 1996
Must use new area code Feb. 1, 1997
KEYWORDS: TELEPHONE AREA CODE by CNB