New local dialing rules coming
CHARLESTON - The Industry Implementation Committee, a consortium of landline and wireless telecommunications providers in West Virginia, has announced that residential and business customers with 304 phone numbers should begin preparing for the introduction of the 681 area code.
A press release from IIC states that, beginning July 26, 2008, customers in West Virginia should start dialing 10 digits, that is, the area code and telephone number when making local calls.
This new local dialing procedure must be used starting Feb. 28, 2009, by everyone in West Virginia.
The 681 area code is being added to the 304 region to ensure businesses and consumers have access to numbers from their carrier of choice.
An area code overlay is the addition of another area code (e.g., 681) to the same geographic region served by an existing area code (e.g., 304).
The most important things consumers and businesses need to know about the area code overlay are:
All customers who have a 304 area code phone number today will keep the 304 area code;
Beginning July 26, all customers in the 304 area code should develop new dialing habits and dial the area code before the seven-digit number when making local calls;
Beginning July 26, 2008, and through Feb. 27, 2009, calls will be completed regardless of whether the old or new dialing procedure is used;
Beginning Feb. 28, 2009, customers in the 304 area code must use the 10-digit dialing procedure for all local calls. After this date, if they do not use the new dialing procedure the call will not be completed and a recording will instruct callers to hang up and dial again;
Phone numbers with the new 681 area code may be assigned beginning March 28, 2009;
The price of a call does not change; a local call is still a local call and a toll call is still a toll call;
The dialing procedure for long distance or operator assisted calls will not change;
You can still dial three digits to reach 911. If 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711 and 811 are currently available in your community you can still dial them with just three digits.
In addition to changing their dialing procedure, customers are encouraged to begin reprogramming their automatic dialing equipment, and all other types of equipment that are currently programmed with only seven-digits. All such devices will need to be reprogrammed with 10-digits (area code + telephone number) prior to Feb. 28, 2009.
Examples of programmed equipment and features include: life safety systems, fax machines, Internet dial-up numbers, alarm and security systems, gates, speed dialers, call forwarding settings, voicemail services, and similar functions.
Customers also are being urged to check with their security or alarm companies and the suppliers of their business phone systems as soon as possible to make sure their systems are programmed to handle the new dialing pattern.
Throughout the past 10 years, telecommunications carriers successfully implemented more than 50 area code overlays throughout the United States to make telephone numbers available to meet growing demand.
For more information, contact a local service provider or visit: http://www.psc.state.wv.us/10_DigitDialing/default.htm
