311 over 630 Means 11-Digit Number Punch

A new area code overlay will be instituted for the western suburbs in early October, and while it may have little effect on area businesses, some industry experts believe the measure to be unnecessary and a waste of current resources.

Because of the rapid expansion of cell phones, fax and Internet lines, and growth of the suburbs, the Illinois Commerce Commission declared the 630 area code to be exhausted and said that the 331 area code would be implemented on Oct. 7 as an overlay code.

This will necessitate 11-digit dialing from anywhere in the 630 area code.

Overlays were established in 1999 by the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) as a way to enter new numbers into the market without disrupting current users. This plan allows all established phone customers to keep their area code and phone number, while new customers may be issued numbers under the new area code.

Prior to 1999, area code splits were the only option; a geographic area was rezoned and broken into two new area codes. Some customers were issued new numbers, causing a large amount of disruption for established businesses.

“Businesses were directly impacted by this decision,” said Joe Cocke, senior area code relief planner for NANPA. “Some businesses relied on their phones to sell products and many would lose customers because of the number change.”

Cocke said that the decision between a split and overlay is made on a case-by-case basis and determined by each individual state, with the most recent split occurring in New Mexico. Utah was scheduled for a split, but state officials reversed their decision in the end and opted for an overlay.

While an overlay may not be as disruptive, every customer will have to initiate 11-digit dialing, even for next-door neighbors. The days of seven digit dialing are over for the western suburbs.

However, some experts contend that this is overlay is not needed and that the distribution process of phone numbers needs to be reexamined and phone companies need to be better stewards of resources.

“The bottom line is that this is an unnecessary hassle,” said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board (CUB). “There are eight million phone numbers available for every area code in the state. That leaves seven or eight phone numbers for every man, woman and child. It’s simple math. There are plenty of numbers available.”

Kolata blames phone companies for “hoarding” numbers and holding on to certain desired area codes.

“The reasons for that is because there are area codes with a certain cache,” said Kolata. “312 in Chicago and 212 in New York are very prominent. And now with Internet telephone systems if you have certain area codes you can call anywhere in the world for the price of a local call.”

In short, it can be a sales point for some companies if they are able to provide the area code that a potential customer wants. That would be reason enough to keep a certain supply, said Kolata.

This can be done because phone numbers are not issued individually to phone companies by NANPA, but in blocks of 1,000 by prefixes, or, the first three numbers. When NANPA runs out of prefixes to distribute, that is when a new area code is put into affect.

This was established so a business could have the same prefix for all of its phone numbers, making it easy to dial within a company. The system used to rely on blocks of 10,000, but resources were running out too quickly, so CUB presented a proposal to NANPA that called for blocks of 1,000. The idea was accepted, but it still has not had the effect that CUB had hoped.

“When a block of 1,000 is distributed a company may only use one phone number with that prefix, while 999 numbers go unused,” said Kolata. “It’s up to the phone companies to request new numbers when they are needed. We are not confident in the enforcement that is going on.”

Kolata said that the 224 overlay that was introduced in the 847 area code area in 2002 is a prime example.

“We held a contest to see if there was anyone out there who actually had a 224 area code,” said Kolata. “We finally found someone who did, but that was because the user actually requested the number.”

The overlay will likely have little effect on security systems, because most security firms have learned from past area code overlays to establish an 11-digit system or an 800 number for their programs.

Dialing 11 numbers may be a minor inconvenience now, but in the not-to-distant future, the U.S. and other countries, such as Canada and some Caribbean nations, could be facing drastic measures when all area codes are eventually exhausted.

“Out of the 800 possible combinations of area codes 681 are assigned,” said NANPA’s Cocke. “There are 310 unassigned and right now that is projected to take us just beyond 2037. The direction we may go could include 12-digit dialing.”

That may be 30 years off, but it will take years of preparation to adjust for such a change as fax machines, automatic dialing systems and security programs will be affected.

“This will be a serious issue because there will be so many programming issues if we go to 12-digit dialing,” said Cocke.

Existing Chicago Metropolitan Area Codes

224, 312, 331, 630, 707, 773, 779, 815, 847

History:

Jan. 1, 1947——312 area code created

Jan. 1, 1947——815 area code created

Nov. 11, 1989——312 split to create 708 for suburbs

Jan. 20, 1996——847 is split from 708

Aug. 31, 1996——630 is split from 708

Oct. 12, 1996——773 is split from 312

Jan. 5, 2002——224 overlay in 847

March 17, 2007——779 overlay in 815