The Associated Press
MADISON — Wisconsin will need two new area codes by 2010.
The 715 and 920 area codes are expected to run out of numbers in the next few years, according to a new report from the government contractor who oversees the nation’s area code planning.
The 715 area code covers central and northern Wisconsin including Eau Claire, Wausau and Marinette. The 920 area code runs from Fort Atkinson to Washington Island.
State regulators said they will begin holding hearings this fall on how to create the new area codes, but no dates have been set and no action is expected for at least a couple years.
It would be the first time in about a decade that Wisconsin added an area code.
The 920 area code was created in 1997, when it broke off from 414. Then 414 split again in 2000. Milwaukee kept the old area code, while the region from Pleasant Prairie to Lake Geneva to Port Washington became 262.
The 262 and 414 area codes now have enough numbers to last until 2018 and 2025, according to NeuStar, the Sterling, Va., company hired by the Federal Communications Commission to oversee area code planning.
The 608 area code, which covers south-central Wisconsin including Madison, should have enough numbers until 2015.
But the 920 area code may run out of numbers by 2010, and the 715 area code is most pressed, with only enough numbers for the next two years, NeuStar said.
“You don’t normally think of northern Wisconsin as being a hotbed of telephone competition,” said Gary Evenson, administrator of the state Public Service Commission’s telecommunications division. “But in cities like Eau Claire and Superior, wireless providers are also using up numbers.”
Demand for cell phones, fax lines and phone lines for computers boomed in the late 1990s, and some reports predicted the nation could run out of area codes within a decade. Each area code includes 792 exchanges.
The FCC changed its system for allocating phone numbers in 2000 to address the problem. The agency began issuing phone numbers in 1,000-number increments instead of 10,000 as it had in the past. Before that, a carrier with only 100 customers could have held 9,900 numbers that were not available to others.
Number portability — or people’s ability to keep their phone number even if they switch carriers — also has helped reduce demand for new numbers, PSC staff said.
___________________________________________
..... I'm 920..... this will be interesting!
