NUMBER, PLEASE?; SHORTAGE BRINGS AREA-CODE FRENZY.Byline: Ronald Campbell The Orange County Register A shortage is gripping the land - a shortage of phone numbers. That's why California might splinter into 60 area codes - nearly triple the current number - by 2005. But contrary to what you have read, you aren't getting new area codes just to accommodate phone-number-eating new technologies like pagers and cellular phones. You're getting them primarily to accommodate old technology. A numbering system that predates the transistor is colliding with demands its inventors could not have anticipated. As a result, millions of California consumers and businesses will have to change phone numbers in the coming years, racking up uncounted costs and confusion. ``The single biggest contributor to the problem today is the inefficient assignment of numbers,'' said Ron Connors. As director of the North American Numbering Plan “NANPA” redirects here. For other uses, see Nanpa (disambiguation). The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is an integrated telephone numbering plan of 24 countries and territories: the United States and its territories, Canada, Bermuda, and 16 Caribbean Administration, Connors is the nation's area-code czar. ``The shame of all this,'' said Lee Selwyn, a Boston telecommunications consultant, ``is that the reason for the proliferation of all these area codes is an anachronism a·nach·ro·nism n. 1. The representation of someone as existing or something as happening in other than chronological, proper, or historical order. 2. .'' That's because the numbering system is a relic of simpler times. Bell Systems engineers devised it in 1947. Each state or big city got its own three-digit area code. Each area code contained dozens of rate centers. Each rate center got one or more three-digit prefixes serving 10,000 phone lines apiece. That plan, designed for a single phone company selling a single service, is wired into the nation's telephone system. The area code and the prefix tell the system how to route and bill every call. As a result, when a new phone company or paging service opens, it needs at least 10,000 phone numbers - all the numbers in one prefix - before it can sign up a single customer. If that company hopes to cover a broad area, say all of Orange County, it needs hundreds of thousands of numbers - a prefix in each rate center. ``That may have made sense in 1947,'' said Mark Cooper This article is about the English football player and coach. For the 19th Century United States Congressman from the state of Georgia, see Mark Anthony Cooper. Mark Cooper , research director for the Consumer Federation of America The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, education and advocacy. According to CFA's website, its members are approximately 300 consumer-oriented non-profits, which themselves have . But under today's conditions, ``the system is completely irrational, and it's not designed to conserve a scarce resource.'' The numbers are telling. California had just 10 area codes until 1991; it has 22 today. Pacific Bell's top area-code administrator said the state probably will have 35 codes by 2000 - including one covering areas currently served by the Valley's 818 area code - and could have 60 by 2005. The state is leading a nationwide trend. The United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. had 106 area codes for most of the 1980s. It has 196 today. It gained 70 in the past four years. Since 1995, Selwyn calculates, the area-code authorities have changed the home numbers of 70 million U.S. households. Tens of millions more families will see their numbers change in the next few years. Where are all the numbers going? Pagers, cell phones and computer modems consume tens of millions of new numbers annually. But regulators and consumer activists say the greatest demand for new numbers is coming from a less prominent source: companies scrambling for a piece of the newly deregulated market for local telephone service. Every new competitive local carrier - and there are dozens in California - is grabbing numbers 10,000 at a time. ``Obviously, as a new company you're not going to have 10,000 customers the day you open your doors,'' said Mary Jo Borak, a California Public Utilities Commission The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC; also often commonly referred to as simply the PUC) [1] is a state Public Utilities Commission which regulates privately-owned utilities in the state of California, including electric power, analyst who runs the state's monthly lottery for new phone prefixes. ``So if you do the math, you will realize there are lots and lots of unused numbers.'' Regulators don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how many numbers go unused, and telephone companies keep that information to themselves. But ``doing the math'' suggests some staggering answers. Each prefix has 10,000 numbers. Each area code has 792 prefixes. California's present 22 area codes can accommodate 174 million phone numbers. That's 5.2 numbers for each of the sta`te's 33 million men, women and children. Among these millions upon millions of digits, one number is conspicuously missing: the cost of changing an area code. Businesses alone spend $6 million to $7 million on new business cards, stationery and the like for area-code changes, said Cooper of the Consumers Federation. That doesn't count indirect costs Indirect costs are costs that are not directly accountable to a particular function or product; these are fixed costs. Indirect costs include taxes, administration, personnel and security costs. See also
Although it's hard to put a dollar sign on inconvenience, Cooper has tried. A few years ago he calculated that as seven-digit calls turned into 10-digit ones, Americans were wasting an extra two seconds dialing each call - losing two hours a year. At $10 per hour per person, that suggests a national price tag in the billions of dollars. But when Cooper unveiled his analysis, he recalled, telephone company executives immediately replied, Hey, you'd value a lovesick love·sick adj. 1. So deeply affected by love as to be unable to act normally. 2. Exhibiting a lover's yearning. love teen-ager's time at $10 an hour? Most people, of course, simply shrug off the cost. Take Seth Baker. He publishes three lifestyle magazines catering to wealthy Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, residents. As a way of tying his magazines to their neighborhoods, he put the area code in each title: ``Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. 213,'' ``Newport Beach Newport Beach, residential and resort city (1990 pop. 66,643), Orange co., S Calif., on Newport Bay and the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1906. It is a popular seaside resort and yachting center. Manufactures include electrical and medical equipment, computers, boats, and adhesives. 714,'' ``San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. County 619.'' If he wanted to keep up with the times, Baker would now be publishing ``Beverly Hills 310'' and ``Newport Beach 749.'' If he wanted to get a year or two ahead of the curve, he'd be publishing ``San Diego County 619/760/858/935.'' No thanks. Baker's keeping his old titles. The area code in the title ``sort of becomes a brand name,'' he said. ``It would be ridiculous to change it every three or four years.'' BY THE NUMBERS History: When the Bell System first assigned area codes in 1947, California and Iowa each got three. Iowa stil`l has three. California now has 22. Number of area codes in the United States in 1947: 77. In 1966 the number was 105; in 1994 it was 126. Today it's 196. Oddest area code: 906. In 1960, the Bell System assigned this number - one of just two new area codes assigned in the United States during the '60s - to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the northern of the two major land masses that comprise the U.S. state of Michigan. It is commonly referred to simply as the Upper Peninsula, the U.P., or Upper Michigan, and more casually as the land "above the Bridge". , which was lightly populated then and now. Engineers may have been trying to cure a headache before it started. At the time, Upper Peninsula Upper Peninsula Abbr. UP The northern part of Michigan between Lakes Superior and Michigan. It is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac. Noun 1. residents were agitating ag·i·tate v. ag·i·tat·ed, ag·i·tat·ing, ag·i·tates v.tr. 1. To cause to move with violence or sudden force. 2. to secede se·cede intr.v. se·ced·ed, se·ced·ing, se·cedes To withdraw formally from membership in an organization, association, or alliance. [Latin s from Michigan and merge with Wisconsin, a move that would have meant a new area code. Phantom area code: San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden got the 415 area code in 1947 and still has it today. But for a few years in the early '50s it apparently bore the 318 code. That, at least, is the area code the mayor of Englewood, N.J., used when he inaugurated direct long-distance dialing in 1951 by calling the mayor of San Francisco. San Francisco reverted to 415 soon after, and the Bell System reassigned 318 to Shreveport, La. Sources: Linc Madison, www.lincmad.com and www.areacode-info.com A CALL FOR RELIEF Area-code planners begin looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. cures long before a particular code runs out of numbers. There are three ways to relieve an area code running out of numbers: Split: A single area code is split in two. This is by far the most common type of change. Example: South Orange County is being split from the 714 area code into the new 949 area code. Overlay: A single geographic region gets a second area code; new numbers get the new code regardless of location. The overlay takes place in two phases: First, 11-digit dialing (1 plus the area code and the number) becomes mandatory for local calls; then the new area code is introduced for new numbers. For example, California will get its first overlay in July 1999 when the new 424 code is added in the 310 area code in L.A.'s Westside; 11-digit dialing will become mandatory in 310 in April. Realignment re·a·lign tr.v. re·a·ligned, re·a·lign·ing, re·a·ligns 1. To put back into proper order or alignment. 2. To make new groupings of or working arrangements between. : Area-code boundarie`s are shifted, typically moving a fast-growing area into an underused code or uniting a geographic region in a single code. For example, early this year the town of Dixon in eastern Solano County was realigned from the crowded 916 area code into 707, giving it the same area code as the rest of the county. SOURCES: Pacific Bell, California Bell is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 36,664 at the 2000 census. Bell is located on the west bank of the Los Angeles River and is situated north of South Gate. Bell Gardens lies to its east. Public Utilities Commission, www.areacode-info.com ON THE WEB Several sites on the World Wide Web offer detailed information about area codes. Among the best: www.pacbell.com: The site features updates of area-code changes although the content is erratic. Maps of area-code splits, when they're available, are excellent. www.nanpa.com: The home of the North American Numbering Plan Authority, the group that oversees the nation's area codes. Very dry, but a good place to find the latest official pronouncements. www.lincmad.com: This is the creation of San Francisco computer programmer and area-code hobbyist Linc Madison. It includes up-to-date maps of area codes nationwide, historic maps, and lists of area codes arranged numerically and by state. www.areacode-info.com: This site contains probably the most detailed history of area codes on the Web and maybe anywhere. CAPTION(S): Drawing, 3 Boxes DRAWING: (Color) no caption (jigsaw puzzle map of California) Gregg Miller/Daily News BOX (1) BY THE NUMBERS (See text) (2) A CALL FOR RELIEF (See text) (3) ON THE WEB (See text) |
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