THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180319
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 75 lines
Tom Van Pelt said he was trying to be a ``good citizen'' by heeding the telephone companies' request that he start using 757 as the area code for his Virginia Beach home phone number.
But Van Pelt's shift to 757 from 804 has already cost him, he figures. That's because when a Myrtle Beach, S.C., hotel tried calling back this week to confirm his reservation for a discounted room rate, it couldn't get through via 757.
By the time a hotel staff member tracked him down through 804, all the cheap rooms were gone, and Van Pelt had to switch his three-night stay next month to a higher-priced cottage.
``I'm out $300,'' he complained.
Van Pelt's problem is typical of hitches encountered by phone users in the early days of an area-code changeover.
Since 757 went into effect for southeastern Virginia July 1, at least a half-dozen local phone users have called The Virginian-Pilot to report that people outside the area had trouble reaching them using the new code.
Representatives of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp., the region's local phone companies, said such problems are rare - but they happen.
That's one of the reasons why the companies established a grace period - in southeastern Virginia's case, until Jan. 31 - during which long-distance calls to both the new and old area codes are supposed to go through.
Beginning Feb. 1, 757 will be mandatory for Hampton Roads, the Eastern Shore and several western Tidewater counties. Central Virginia, including Richmond, Lynchburg and Charlottesville, will keep 804.
Paul Miller, a Bell Atlantic spokesman, said the early problems with 757 are similar to difficulties experienced last year in western Virginia, when the 540 code was carved out of 703. Mandatory dialing to 540 began in January after a six-month grace period.
Still, he contended, the problems in 757 ``aren't nearly as severe as several years ago,'' when new area codes took effect. Miller said so many new codes are being created these days - as a proliferation of cellular phones, fax machines and computers eats up telephone exchanges - that phone companies and businesses are getting quicker at adjusting.
In the case of Van Pelt, a public-housing consultant who is going to Myrtle Beach for a convention, the problem was rooted at the hotel itself. It turned out that the resort at which the hotel is located hadn't updated its Private Branch Exchange system to allow calls into the 757 code.
Outmoded PBX systems are one of the main reasons for area-code foul-ups, Bell Atlantic's Miller said. Many such systems weren't set up to allow calls into area codes with a number other than ``0'' or ``1'' in the middle. Now, every new code that's created has a number other than ``0'' or ``1'' in the center. So a lot of PBXs have to be replaced or reprogrammed - in some cases, repeatedly - to get around the problem.
Miller said some calls also don't get through when long-distance carriers used by phone users elsewhere fail to update their networks to include new area codes. There are hundreds of such phone companies in the United States. Occasionally, even local phone companies on the other end forget to update, he said. These tend to be ``mom-and-pop'' operations that serve small towns.
Because of such problems, some local phone users are refusing to use 757 for now. Others give out both 757 and 804 as the area code at which they can be reached. Meanwhile, many are unsure whether to have their business cards and stationery updated to include 757.
Miller said Bell Atlantic would prefer that customers use 757 exclusively.
But even the phone company has been slow to get on board in some cases. When callers dial Bell Atlantic's ``411'' line for directory assistance, the area code that the phone company provides for numbers in Hampton Roads is 804, not 757.
Changing the recorded messages to 757 won't take place until mid-November, Miller said.
``Ideally, we would like to have it changed sooner because we're asking our customers to use 757,'' he said. ``But for us, there are literally thousands of man-hours involved in making such a change.''
KEYWORDS: TELEPHONE AREA CODES by CNB