Friday, March 31, 2000
River adds 3 digits to phone calls
Northern Ky. gets new area code
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Starting Saturday, callers on one side of the Ohio River will have to dial an area code to reach neighbors and businesses on the other side.
It's Greater Cincinnati's first foray into 10-digit dialing for local calls — one of the biggest changes in using the phone since technology went wireless.
So high is the demand for new numbers for cell phones, faxes and pagers that dialing a simple seven digits is becoming a problem.
Ten-digit dialing comes to the Tristate as Northern Kentucky splits from the 606 calling area and gets a new 859 (for UKY) area code.
The change means Ohio call ers with the 513 area code must dial 859, then the usual seven digits, to reach Northern Kentucky. Kentucky callers with the 859 area code must dial 513 to reach Ohio. Callers don't have to dial 1 first.
Callers will have six months to get used to it all. During that time, seven-digit dialing still will get through. After Oct. 1, it won't.
Dialing the extra numbers won't cost more; it's still a local call. And you still can dial just seven digits to call someone within the same area code.
Ed Hengelbrok remembers in 1960 when his phone number became seven digits instead of a “CO” prefix (for Colonial) plus five digits.
“I don't remember large problems with the letters converting,” says Mr. Hengelbrok, president of W.J. Baker Co., a manufacturing company in Wilder. “But 10 digits — that sounds ridiculous. You'd think there would be a simpler way.”
The reason for “dialing the code,” as the phone company calls it, is to preserve dwindling numbers in local area codes.
There are 792 prefixes in each area code and a possible 10,000 numbers in each prefix. That means it takes as many as 7.92 million numbers to use up an area code.
But when callers can dial without an area code across geographic boundaries, it limits the prefixes phone companies can use, says Rebecca Barnhart of the North American Numbering Plan Administration, which keeps track of these things for the Federal Communications Commission.
Using all 10 digits frees up the phone company to use the same prefixes in both area codes.
That's going to help keep the 513 area code around longer, says Beth Gianforcaro of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The 513 area code was set to run out of numbers in 2002, but “dialing the code” with Kentucky will prolong its life.
Confused? Blame technology.
Every automatic teller machine and lottery machine, every check-out that scans credit cards, every cell phone, pager and fax — each has its own phone number, says Libby Korosec, Cincinnati Bell's spokeswoman.
Add that doesn't even count new homes and businesses that need traditional phones.
The Federal Communications Commission is studying ways to preserve numbers so they don't grow even longer than 10 digits, Ms. Barnhart says. Ten-digit dialing within the same area code already is common in some cities, including Dallas, Atlanta and Miami.
Phone company officials hope customers here adjust. The way Ed Hengelbrok sees it, there's no choice.
“Well, it's a changing world for sure, especially if you've been in it a long time,” said Mr. Hengelbrok, 70. “You have to go with the flow.”
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