New area codes can cause headaches

95 new codes imposed in last two years

December 31, 1997
Web posted at: 7:01 p.m. EST (0001 GMT)

DETROIT (CNN) -- With Americans communicating more than ever with cellular phones, faxes, modems, pagers -- and even plain old telephones -- new area codes are being assigned at a rate of about one a month.

In 1995, there were 144 area codes. By the end of 1997, there were 239. And new area codes mean headaches for consumers.

Take, for instance, the city of Farmington Hills, Michigan. When its area code was changed, the city had to spend thousands to tell residents about the new numbers. Phone numbers on letterheads, various publications and the city newsletter all had to be changed.

And come New Year's Day, the addition of a new area code will require every phone customer in metropolitan Atlanta, home to more than 3 million people, to begin dialing 10 digits (the area code plus the local phone number) to complete every call -- even calls to people next door.

That's because, rather than carving out a separate geographic area for a new area code, the local phone company, Bell South, is instead just using the new number is the same areas where two existing area codes are being used.

This so-called "overlay" system means that numbers next door to each other -- or perhaps even in the same house -- could have different area codes. So all 10 digits have to be dialed.

The reasons behind the explosion of new area codes are complex. The increase used of cellular phones and pagers have obviously increased the need for phone numbers, and phone companies say they simply must have more numbers.

But phone companies are currently using only about 400 million of the billion phone numbers they hold. And one reason for that is a federal numbering plan, nearly 50 years old, that assigns different companies phone numbers of blocks of 10,000 -- without investigating if the numbers are ever used.

"It's inefficient because if a company needs one number or has only one customer in an area, they obtain a block of 10,000 numbers," says Seamus Glynn of the Illinois Citizens Utility Board.

And at some point in the future, some experts believe that four-digit area codes or perhaps eight-digit phone numbers might be instituted -- making it even harder to remember your next door' neighbors phone number.

Reporter Joan MacFarlane contributed to this report.

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