THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230306
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 52 lines
Hampton Roads residents aren't procrastinators.
The region's two leading mobile-telephone providers said Wednesday that more than 90 percent of their customers have already had their cellular phones reprogrammed from the 804 code to 757 - with more than a week to go before the Feb. 1 deadline.
That's well ahead of the average pace in other places where area-code changes have taken place in recent years, said representatives of 360 Communications Co. and GTE Wireless.
The companies, which serve more than 250,000 customers in Hampton Roads, have spent more than $1 million combined to handle the code switch.
``We feel pretty good about where we are at this point,'' said 360 spokeswoman Mary Ann Welch. ``We think in this last week, we'll get most of those last holdouts.''
When Tennessee added the 423 area code about a year and a half ago, more than 20 percent of that new code's cell-phone users still hadn't switched by deadline day, Welch said.
Western Virginia residents also were more slack when area code 540 replaced 703 in that region last January, said Tom Dreyer, acting Hampton Roads manager for GTE Wireless.
The cell-phone representatives said the seven-month grace period during which people could use either 804 or 757 to make long-distance calls to phones in the region left plenty of time to take care of reprogramming.
And the nation's cellular providers also are getting better at handling such switches - having been through dozens of area-code changes in the last few years.
Both 360 and GTE have included special notices with bills. They have also set up booths at fairs and festivals to do reprogrammings. 360 even set up a toll-free number that customers can call and be walked through the reprogramming steps themselves.
The whole process takes about five minutes.
What happens if you don't have your cell phone reprogrammed?
360's Welch said that beginning Feb. 1, if you travel outside the area, there's a good chance you won't be able to use the phone. GTE's Dreyer said as early as June, you may also run into problems using the phone locally as the phone's number is deposited into a pool for reassignment to somebody in the old 804 area. Central Virginia, including Richmond, Charlottesville and Lynchburg, will hold onto 804.
The region's newest mobile-phone provider, PrimeCo Personal Communications, hasn't had to worry about reprogramming. Since it launched its service last November, it has issued phones locally that are already programmed with 757.
Both 360 and GTE can reprogram phones at any of their offices. For more information, call 360 at (800) 734-1603 or GTE at (800) 559-4224.
KEYWORDS: AREA CODES