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PSC APPROVES "OVERLAY" OPTION TO ADDRESS AREA CODES
Friday, November 7th, 2008 -- 11:38 am
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
The days of picking up the phone and calling 7 numbers will soon be over for most of our listening area.
The 715 and 920 area codes are running out of numbers. The PSC decided Thursday to use an “overlay” solution. That means existing phone users will keep their 715 area code, but new customers will be given a new 534 area code.
Tim LeMonds of the PSC says commissioners thought this would be easier than their typical method of splitting the region and giving everyone new numbers.
"We have businesses who have invested thousands of dollars in advertising and marketing material and have had customers dialing the same phone number for decades. We didn't want to add additional burden on them," LeMonds says, "(Overlay) is a cheaper way to go about implementing area codery."
With technological advances demanding new phone numbers popping up almost daily, it’s hard to predict how long this solution will last.
"We have households with four or five different phone numbers. We see area codes' lifespans shortening," he says.
After the plan is implemented in about a year-and-a-half, people living in those two area codes will need to dial a 10-digit number to place local calls. They won’t need to dial “1” for local calls.
According to on-line records, 715 was one of the two original area codes assigned to Wisconsin in 1947.
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