New area code gets OK

Last modified: Friday, November 7, 2008 10:14 PM CST

New area code gets OK

The days of dialing a seven-digit telephone number for local calls in western Wisconsin are numbered.

As soon as mid-2010, Chippewa County residents will have to dial 10 numbers for all local calls, using either the 715 or the new 534 area code.

After the change, all new telephone numbers will be assigned the 534 area code, while existing phones will keep the 715 area code.

Thursday’s action by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission means next-door neighbors could have different area codes.

If you don’t dial the area code and then the number for a local call, your call won’t go through. Instead, you’ll hear a recording.

The change means residents and businesses will have to reprogram speed dials on their phones, alarms, faxes and automated calling lists to reflect the new 10-digit local phone numbers.

“These decisions come with some burden to somebody,” said Tim Le Monds, a spokesperson with the PSC.

One thing will stay the same. Le Monds said local calls will remain local, even with the new area code and the 10-digit dialing, and long distance calls are still long distance.

Long distance calls will remain 11-digit numbers, starting with a 1, then the area code and the seven-digit number.

The PSC was faced with having to take action because the 715 area code was projected to exhaust all of its possible numbers in 2011.

Le Monds said an explosion of communication devices, such as the Onstar system in cars and mobile systems such as Blackberries, led to using up all the possible numbers.

As of September 2007, the 715 area code had only 91 prefixes (the first three digits of a telephone number) available out of a possible 792.

The PSC could have chosen among several options that would not have affected Chippewa County residents. It could have chosen to do what it has traditionally done, and set up separate area code zones.

If it had followed that path, only two of the five options would have impacted parts of Chippewa County, forcing residents to adopt a new area code.

Instead, the PSC for the first time went with a system used in many other states called an overlay, where two area codes are used.

“Overlays are very common outside of Wisconsin,” Le Monds said.

The three PSC commissioners decided to go with the overlays because a new separate area code zone would have been too costly to businesses.

“I can’t in these economic times place a burden on anyone,” The Associated Press quoted PSC Commissioner Mark Meyer as saying.

The PSC had no say in picking 534 as the new area code. That’s a number assigned by the North American Numbering Administrator.

“They have full authority about what the area code is going to be,” Le Monds said.

The new area code will not have an effect on the emergency dispatch centers for Chippewa Falls and Chippewa County.

“Our incoming 911 calls probably will not be a problem,” said Lt. John Liddell of the Chippewa Falls Police Department. Those calls show up in the dispatch centers with the right area codes, he said.

“I don’t know why it would be a problem,” agreed Dennis Brown, emergency management director for Chippewa County.

But Liddell expects the public could be confused by the change.

“People are so used to dialing 715 and not dialing a 10-digit number,” he said.

Le Mond said there will be a substantial educational effort by phone companies and the PSC in the 19 months before the switch takes place.

The PSC also voted to use the overlay system in the Fox Valley and Green Bay area, with existing customers keeping the 920 area code and new ones getting the 274 area code.