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The N&O reports that the Triangle is getting a new overlay area code - 984, which will necessitate 10-digit dialing once it takes effect. Some will remember that about a decade ago, BellSouth started the transition to this overlay area code, but aborted it almost as soon as it started.
Not sure why an overlay would be done in the Triangle. Giving the Durham MSA the new code while the Raleigh MSA keeps the old code makes more sense to me. Anyways, this would be the state's 8th area code.
Not sure why an overlay would be done in the Triangle. Giving the Durham MSA the new code while the Raleigh MSA keeps the old code makes more sense to me.
Forcing half the area's population and business into a new area code for all existing numbers in the affected area is not really easy and it's certainly not cheap.
Forcing half the area's population and business into a new area code for all existing numbers in the affected area is not really easy and it's certainly not cheap.
But that's how it was done the vast majority of times before, every time a new one has been added. Overlays are the exception. For many years, NC just had 919 (East/NW) and 704 (Charlotte area). Then around 1990, 919 broke into 919 and 910 (casuing untold confusion for those changing, but the reason they had to use one so close to the old one is, this was when area codes could only have a "0" or a "1" as the middle digit, and 910 was literally the LAST one left of that pattern (they had only recently added the "xx0" ones, which were previously not possible).
When they finally rewrote the switching systems so that (virtually) any 3-digit number could be an area code, new ones proliferated, of course. 919 split once again, adding 252 AND 336, and 704 split, adding 828. It was only somewhat recently that Charlotte needed another one and became an overlay. I don't know why the choice for overlays except that it seems to be an urban thing, where it makes sense an area code to cover the whole city/region. When less populated areas split, they generally assign a region to a whole new code.
I persnally like being able to know what someone's area code is by where they live, so I do wish 919 would simply split geographically into another one (state govt would dictate that Raleigh kept 919) instead of now having to know the whole code for someone.
Here is a fascinating area code history. I still remember when I was a kid and every state just had a handful--I knew about 75% of them by heart. So most of the changes from this map to the current one involved people having to have their areas code changed; overlays are still definitely the exception, not the rule.
I persnally like being able to know what someone's area code is by where they live, so I do wish 919 would simply split geographically into another one (state govt would dictate that Raleigh kept 919) instead of now having to know the whole code for someone.
The main issue with this is now with number portability, you can have a number from practically anywhere. Especially with so much in-migration of tech savvy people I bet there is a pretty high percentage with "alien" area codes here.
I persnally like being able to know what someone's area code is by where they live.
Your age is showing. (Mine too) Among the younger cell phone set, they keep the same 10-digit numbers as they move all around. To them, the first 3 digits are just that - digits - and have nothing to do with where they (once) lived.
Most calls now a day for me are just 1 or 2 presses (or if I am really lazy by voice command). With touch screen smart phones and click-able phone numbers on web pages (voice search is getting really good these days) there's no need to dial 10 digits.
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Among the younger cell phone set, they keep the same 10-digit numbers as they move all around. To them, the first 3 digits are just that - digits - and have nothing to do with where they (once) lived.
