Chicago area set to gain another area code - Existing 630 users to get 331 overlay, go to 11-digit dialing

Chicago area set to gain another area code - Existing 630 users to get 331 overlay, go to 11-digit dialing
By Gerry Smith
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
Published July 13, 2007
A large swath of west suburban Chicago will dial an extra four digits to make local phone calls when state regulators add a second area code this fall.

The 630 area code was "exhausted" at the end of June and will be supplemented by 331 for new phone customers effective Oct. 7, George Light, a telecommunications analyst for the Illinois Commerce Commission, said Thursday.

The additional area code will require local calls to include the full 11-digit number -- 1, the area code and seven-digit number. No current customers will have to change numbers, Light said.

In part, the additional area code underscores the growth in DuPage County since 630 was implemented in 1996. The county's population has grown about 8 percent, from 860,000 to 933,000 over that period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

But the four extra keystrokes also are due to the growth of the telecommunications industry and federal law promoting open competition, he said. As the proliferation of cell-phone users exhausted numbers, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 required state regulators to grant phone companies equal access to area codes, he said.

Light said the new code was inevitable despite efforts for "pooling" since 1999 to defer a prefix shortage by asking phone companies to return unused numbers.

"It was just a matter of time," Light said.

Local calls will cost the same, but the addition of a new prefix is an "unnecessary hassle," said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board.

Kolata said there are 7.8 million combinations of numbers for each area code and about 94 million available numbers in Illinois -- or seven for every person.

"The notion of area code exhaust is purely artificial," said Kolata, who believes the problem stems from bad policy by federal regulators and hoarding of numbers by the telephone industry.

Light acknowledged there are many numbers still out there, but said regulators have simply run out of "prefixes" -- the first three digits of a seven-digit phone number. Light said prefixes, which are allocated in blocks of 1,000, are unique to specific towns and carriers. In smaller towns, many are left unused, intensifying the shortage.

State regulators may have averted many headaches by implementing an "overlay" of the 331 code in the county, which retains all current phones numbers, rather than splitting the 630 area code and assigning new numbers to half the area. There are about 36 overlays of area codes in 16 states.

The 331 overlay will bring to nine the number of area codes in the Chicago area, joining the existing 312, 773, 708, 630, 815, 847, 224 and 779. Residents in the 815 area code went to 11-digit dialing in mid-February, just before the 779 overlay was introduced there in March.

In 1996, state regulators chose to split the 708 area code to create the additional 847 and 630 codes, forcing residents and businesses to reprogram security systems and update business cards and stationery. In 2002, phone customers in the 847 area code added the 224 code, becoming the first customers in Illinois to dial 11 digits for local calls.

Stephen Geiser, owner of Security Services Group in Wheaton, said area code splits have taken a toll on his technicians, who have been dispatched to homes to reprogram alarm systems. He has learned a lesson, he said, and now has most of his customers' alarm systems linked to toll-free numbers to avert the inconvenience of another area-code change.

"Most alarm dealers, if they're smart, have already gone to 800 numbers," he said. But for those that haven't, he said, "It's just a minor nuisance."

Dave Grote, owner of All Star Printing in Wheaton, said area code splits have slightly boosted business in the past, but said the overlay would have little impact on letterhead and business-card sales.

Chicagoans have struggled with the implementation of new area codes in the past. In 1989, when Chicagoland added its third area code, 708, only 14 percent of calls from the 312 region to the 708 region and 7.5 percent of calls from the suburbs to the city were dialed correctly, according to Illinois Bell surveys.

In 1996, when phone service provider Ameritech implemented the 847 area code for Chicago's north and northwest suburbs, many customers had an office number with an 847 area code, a residential phone number with a 630 area code and a car phone with a 312 area code, the Tribune reported.

gfsmith@tribune.com