Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Wed, 1 May 91 07:24:01 PDT From: gilpatrick@odixie.enet.dec.com Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: New Area Code For North Georgia Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 327, Message 1 of 6 Lines: 84 This article is from the 4/25/91 edition of {The Atlanta Journal}. I'll transcribe directly, errors and all. There was a map accompanying the article that showed the counties that will be in the new 706 area, except that the AC boundry does not align with county lines. It also showed Columbus GA in 706. Columbus is already in 912 and will stay there. TWO AREA CODES SET FOR N. GEORGIA; OUTSIDE METRO ATLANTA TO GET 706 By Bill Hulstead, with Susan Laccetti & John Harmon (Atlanta Journal) The number is up for North Georgia. It has outgrown the 404 telephone area code. So, in May 1992, some North Georgia residents will be getting a new area code. Here's how it will work: - The metro Atlanta area will keep the 404 area code. Anyplace Atlanta residents can call as a local number will stay in the 404 area code. - Everywhere else in the 404 area will change to 706. So if you live in the 404 area and Atlanta is a long-distance call away, your area code is changing. Southern Bell was running out of numbers in the 404 area code, said Carl Swearingen, the company's president for Georgia operations. Besides natural population growth, more numbers were being taken up by popular new devices such as cellular telephones and facsimile machines. Think that's a problem? Just wait: the country is running out of area codes. "There are just 152 area codes in existence," said Southern Bell spokeswoman Pamela Fuller. "Of those, 144 are in use today and the remainder are tentatively assigned." Which meant Southern Bell had to fight to get the 706 area code. It also means that, by 1995 at the latest, there won't be any more codes available. Nobody thinks the country will stop growing, so something will have to give. Two possibilities are being considered. One is adding an extra digit to numbers dialed for a local call. So, by 1995, instead of dialing, say, 555-1212, you may have to dial 5555-1212. DIAL 10 NUMBERS? Another solution is to require that ten digits be dialed for local calls, just like you do for long-distance calls. That means you would have to dial 1-404-555-1212 just to reach your neighbor. The telephone system is simply running out of area codes and prefixes. Fewer are available than you might think because area codes can't be used as prefix numbers and prefix numbers can't be used as area codes. For instance, you'll never see a prefix that uses 404, the area code. In metro Atlanta's outlying counties, where the 404 area code will soon be just a memory, civic leaders think the change could be a mixed blessing. "We'd like to be in metro Atlanta," said Dick James of the Newton County Chamber of Commerce, located jut outside the toll-free zone. "But there is a certain amount of charm to being a little rural." In Helen, which is host to three million visitors annually, Welcome Center Manager Millie Clements said the change will be an inconvenience at first. The change means some counties -- including Cherokee, Henry and Douglas -- will have two area codes. The telephone company set the area code lines so people who now call Atlanta without paying a long-distance charge can continue to. Customers in Cherokee's Woodstock area, where Atlanta numbers are a local call, will stay on 404. North of that, customers will be in the 706 area code and continue to pay long-distance charges to call Atlanta.