Area code may push some people's buttons
The best-kept secret in western Pennsylvania could become the biggest nuisance on July 12.
That's when everyone in the 412 and 724 area codes will have to dial 10 digits - area code and number - for local and regional calls.
But the deadline is news to many.
'I haven't seen anything at all on that,' said USX Corp. spokesman John Armstrong. 'Nobody's done anything at all around here. I'm sure our phone people know about it, but there haven't been any messages about it.'
| See This Related Graphic |
| Ten-Digit Dialing (133K) On July 12, all phone customers in the 412 and 724 area codes must dial 10 digits to complete local or toll calls. The new 878 area code will “overlay” the 412-724 region, and after Aug. 17, new customers within that region may be assigned the 878 area code. |
The idea of the overlay is to cut down on the confusion of requiring thousands of phone customers to change their area code. The 878 code will be assigned only to new customers, and then only after most of the available 412 and 724 numbers are assigned.
The new area code is necessary because telephones, fax machines and computers have been gobbling up numbers within area code 412 and the 3-year-old 724 area code.
Once use of the 878 area code begins, new customers could have a different area code from their neighbors next door or in the same building, who will keep 412 or 724.
But it will no longer be necessary to dial '1' before those numbers. You'll need to use the long-distance prefix only when calling numbers outside those three area codes.
The mandatory switch was announced in July 2000. The region is now under a 'permissive' 10-digit dialing status. Customers dialing the area code and number for local calls will be connected. After July 11, however, they must dial the 10 digits.
Verizon-Pennsylvania, the state's dominant local telephone service provider, was surprised to learn that many people don't know about the switch.
Verizon has put 10-digit-dialing information in bill inserts and in new directories. The company also has launched an aggressive education program in schools, with more than 85,000 coloring books and 5,000 teaching guides. Verizon had booths at the Auto Show, the Boat Show and the Home Show, as well as announcements at PNC Park.
'I was in Pittsburgh at the beginning of April and talking to people in cabs, airplanes and on the street,' said Dorothy Bruzek, who, as Verizon's manager of Pennsylvania area code education, is in charge of getting the word out. 'I did my own informal survey, and the answer I got back most was, 'I know about it, but when does it start?''
The switch won't stop all seven-digit calls from going through on July 12. Some Verizon offices may take as long as five days to make the conversion.
Bruzek said Verizon is making a concerted effort to inform senior citizens of the change, working with the county Agency on Aging and sending information to senior housing complexes.
'I know we haven't gotten a lot of calls yet,' said Lee Gierczynski, a Verizon spokesman. But he said extra employees will be available for an expected spike in questions after July 12.
Likewise, AT&T has set up a toll-free number for questions about the new dialing: (800) 501-6634. AT&T also has informed its local customers through bill inserts.
'Consumers don't need as much time to get ready as the businesspeople,' said Bruzek, who also managed last year's switch to 10-digit dialing in southeastern Pennsylvania. 'The reason for the permissive dialing period - almost 13 months - was mainly to get the business community ready for the dialing change.'
Still, many people aren't ready.
'What we would normally do is send e-mail throughout the site,' said Michael Koff, spokesman for Sony Corp. in Westmoreland County, who expressed surprise that mandatory 10-digit dialing was looming. 'We would also promote it on our closed-circuit systems.
'None of that has been done yet,' he said. 'We'll probably start doing it in mid-June.'
That's also when Verizon will reprise its advertising campaign on 10-digit dialing, buying newspaper ads and radio spots. The ads also ran at the beginning of the permissive dialing period.
'We're basically mirroring the effort we did in the east,' Bruzek said. There, a survey found that 81 percent of business customers and 71 percent of residential customers knew when the change was coming about.
She added that the first call on July 12 'will be a real memory jogger' for customers.
'Once they reach that recording telling them that the call won't go through as dialed, it will jog them that they should dial the right way,' she said.
The 878 code will be assigned only to new customers after most of the available 412 and 724 numbers are assigned, said PUC spokeswoman Cyndi Page. As of May 24, the PUC estimated 58 percent of 412 numbers and 70 percent of 724 numbers held by telephone companies were available.
Some companies, however, have managed to get a jump on the change. At Mellon Financial Services, with more than 18,000 Centrex phone lines in western Pennsylvania, telecommunications manager Walt Stimmel said the company started sending e-mail about the change in mid-May.
'We still have to write the work orders to change our Centrex lines,' Stimmel said. 'My guess is it is going to take a fair bit of hours,' he said. 'We probably could have started earlier, but we had more pressing things.'
'Every message that goes out prompts us to dial the area code,' said Pat Crawford, spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
She admitted the school district hasn't done much more to get ready for the switch.
'It's not high on the list of things we're doing.'
And then, there's human nature.
'Usually everyone doesn't react until they need to react,' said John Curry, owner and operator of Curry Communications, a tiny telephone service 'reseller' in East Pittsburgh.
'The biggest problems will be more of the new technology,' he said, noting that cellular phones, personal digital machines, pagers and computers will have to be reprogrammed to dial 10 digits. 'Most people will just deal with it when it happens.'
Lou Ransom can be reached at (412) 320-7886 or lransom@tribweb.com .
