There was a time, not so very long ago, when people got downright misty-eyed over telephone exchanges. “Remember NOrthside 7,” they’d sigh, or “Ah, ANdover.”
Somehow, numerical area codes–847, 773–just don’t have that sentimental ring to them. And a good thing, too, since it’s beginning to look as if few people are going to have the same one long enough to develop an emotional attachment.
Some time in the next few weeks, the Illinois Commerce Commission is expected to determine whether the region covered by the fledgling 847 area code will be split into two codes or whether all existing telephone customers will keep 847 while new customers in the region get a different code.
Either scenario will create confusion and inconvenience–and so far there’s no evidence that either is necessary in the immediate future. The ICC would be remiss in its duty to consumers if it approves yet another area code shuffle so close on the heels of the last one, in 1996, which divided Chicago and its suburbs into five codes.
Ameritech had predicted the area codes, which created a total of 40 million potential phone numbers, would last five or six years. Now the phone company says the 847 area will have used up its numbers in 6 to 12 months, and others will soon follow.
Here’s what happened. Phone numbers are given out to service providers (that’s your phone company) in blocks of 10,000, regardless of whether a provider actually has 10,000 folks waiting for new numbers. That means new companies providing wireless service and a host of companies hoping to compete with Ameritech for wired service can stockpile numbers by the tens of thousands. The result: Fewer than 15 million of those 40 million numbers are actually in use.
The Citizens Utility Board has proposed a plan that would remedy such gross inefficiency and stretch the supply of numbers within current area codes to last years instead of months. Their proposal calls for unused phone numbers to be put back into a common pool and allocated in blocks of 1,000 (instead of 10,000) to companies after they prove they have used up their previous supplies.
That makes sense. In the long run, every phone customer will have a personal lifetime phone number, somewhat like a Social Security number. No area code, no common exchange; just a 10- or 11-digit number that moves where the customer moves.
But until that becomes feasible nationwide, the Commerce Commission should strive to keep things as uncomplicated as possible, and that means no unnecessary new area codes, whether for whole regions or for new phone lines in existing ones.
