Imagine picking up the phone and dialing 11 digits to call someone who lives in the same town.
Schaumburg officials can not only imagine it. They fear it’s going to happen, and they don’t like it. The village filed suit Monday against Ameritech Illinois in an effort to prevent any splitting of the suburb into two area codes.
In its quest to expand the number of available phone lines, Ameritech has devised a plan village officials call “highly discriminatory.”
What is unfair, the suit says, is that the northern half of the village would be in the 847 area code while residents in the southern half would be assigned the 630 code.
The village says no other community of equal size is being subjected to such a split.
But Ameritech officials said no plan has been imposed on the village. In fact, a spokeswoman said that as late as last week, the company had provided information to Schaumburg and Elk Grove Village officials to help them determine what kind of plan would be acceptable.
Elk Grove Village residents also may find themselves split between codes if Ameritech has its way.
The suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court maintains that Ameritech’s proposal ignores the plan negotiated between officials of the Illinois Commerce Commission and the Northwest Municipal Conference that was intended to avoid dividing communities into separate area codes.
“The options Ameritech provided us are not satisfactory,” said Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson. “The options they gave us were splitting the town in half and two area codes or having some 20,000 customers change their phone numbers. Neither one is a viable option.
“So we ordered village attorney Jack Siegel, in a precautionary move, to take this action to prevent them from going ahead.”
Larson added that dialogue between the phone company and the village will continue “to see if it can be resolved appropriately.”
The suit envisions all kinds of expensive and mind-numbing troubles for Schaumburg’s residents and businesses.
Residents unsure of the geographics would be forced to call information just to reach someone on the other side of town. Companies throughout the village would have to change business cards and stationery.
Those accustomed to dialing seven numbers to reach their neighboring residents might have to dial 10 or 11 digits.
Even those who work in Village Hall on the south side of town, the suit says, would have to dial an area code just to reach the Public Safety Building on the north side.
Ameritech officials said, however, that they are working to avert those nightmare scenarios.
“Ameritech’s first priority is to provide quality service to its customers, and we have been working extremely closely with the municipalities, each and every one of them, to make sure each municipality only has one area code,” said Lisa Kim, an Ameritech spokeswoman. “This has been and continues to be Ameritech’s main goal.”
Kim said there is no reason Schaumburg couldn’t remain in one area code, though that would likely mean some residents would have to be assigned new numbers.
