Phone company dials new requirements making calls

In a couple of years, calling a next-door neighbor could require dialing an  area code. With demand exceeding the availability of new telephone numbers in Connecticut, the state will soon be seeing two new area codes.

The Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) said the goal of its new “overlay� is to create as little disruption as possible.

No current phone numbers or area codes will change.

When the plan takes effect, new phone numbers in the current 860 area will be assigned a 959 code.

In the 203 area, 475 will begin preceding new numbers.

What that means is that your neighbor who moves from across town (in the same exchange) can bring his phone number with him, as usual.

But that new neighbor from out of town who needs a new number will get the new area code.

Will the bills increase?

The question is, can calling next door mean a long-distance charge?

The answer: no.

Northwest Corner residents won’t be dialing “1â€� to connect with long distance service. They will be dialing a “10-digit phone number.â€� That terminology is the key. Those who live along the border of Connecticut’s area codes are more familiar with the concept. They can call neighboring towns with a different  area code for free by dialing the 10-digit area code and phone number.

Most people here make only local seven-digit calls or long distance 11-digit calls. The new 10-digit phone call is a new world.

Beginning probably in 2010, when you dial your neighbor, it could very well be a 10-digit call, but you won’t have to dial “1.�

“It won’t be a toll call,â€� said Beryl Lyons, media spokesperson for the DPUC. “It was set up so that no one’s number would change. That’s  especially important for businesses. They would have to change all their printed materials, advertising and more. It would be a huge expense.

“We didn’t want to attempt to carve up the state into a new configuration of area codes. That would be just too upsetting.�

Lyons was rather surprised by the press interest, saying it’s “not a story.� The issue of dwindling phone numbers has been on the DPUC docket since 1996. But it’s not something the average person follows closely, and there are questions and misinformation out there.

No changes in more than decade

It has been 13 years since the last area code change in Connecticut. It was 1995 when the original, lone 203 code was focused on Fairfield County and New Haven counties, and 860 was assigned to about three-quarters of the state.

A total of 52 of the state’s 169 towns  kept the 203 code; all of New Haven County, all of Fairfield County, except for Sherman and Roxbury and Woodbury at the southern end of Litchfield County.

Demand for more phone numbers is affected not only by population density, but also by the availability of cell phone service. Connecticut’s rural residents are well-versed in those issues. There are still plenty of “dead zones� but a flurry of telecommunications tower building and different network options has brought the region around the bend, to coverage sufficient enough to make it worth the expense of tower construction.

Lyons added that it’s not just cell phones and fax lines that are sucking up the available numbers.

“People don’t realize how many other things use phone lines,� she said. “Alarm systems and ATMs are just two examples.�

Credit and debit card information also travel on phone lines.

Across the country, there is an obvious pattern. Currently, about half of the states still have only one area code. Cities such as New York and Los Angeles have more area codes within their borders than most states have in total. Other large cities and their suburbs often have area code overlays of two or three codes.

Nearby Massachusetts has the large 413 area code that encompasses most of the western half of the state. Another six areas each have dual codes.

Most of New York state is served by nine area codes, two of those on Long Island. But in the five New York City burroughs, there are 14.