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From: smk@attunix.att.com (S M Krieger)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: 8-Digit Phone Numbers vs. More Area Codes
Message-ID: <telecom-v09i0505m05@vector.dallas.tx.us>
Date: 10 Nov 89 14:41:07 GMT
Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US
Organization: Summit NJ
Lines: 25
Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us

Based on the number of area code splits that have recently occurred or
have been announced, I am wondering if the idea of just expanding our
phone numbers to 8 digits is being considered?  Doing that just
inconveniences all phone users eually and multiplies by 10 the number
of phone numbers that are possible within an area code.  On the other
hand, splitting an area code changes three digits of the phone number,
and only doubles the number of phone numbers that are available.

Also, based on the growth in the demand for phone numbers, a demand
incidentally which the phone companies are themselves encouraging
(i.e., the coded ring feature, or whatever it's "officially" called),
it seems that area code splits will need to occur even more often than
they do now.  For this, I am looking at my home state of NJ: a second
area code was created for NJ in 1958 (the 201/609 split), and now a
third area code (the 201/908 split) is being created.  Since it
probably won't be 30 years until the next split, and 30 years after
that until the fourth split, there has to be a better way to
"stabilize" our phone numbers.

Any ideas or thoughts?


Stan Krieger
Summit, NJ
 ...!att!attunix!smk