User:Jnmornout/Area code change in southern Indiana

Area code change in southern Indiana
Wednesday, March 5, 2014

This year the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) is issuing an overlay of the area code 930 over the current 812 area due to the limited amount of available phone numbers. The area code has been in place in southern Indiana since 1947 and is projected to run out of available numbers by 2015. March 1 began the six month grace period for Indiana residents to transition to the change by having the option to dial all ten digits of the number when making local calls. This will continue until September 6, when ten-digit dialing will become mandatory as 930 numbers will be assigned to new phone lines. After this date, if callers do not enter all ten digits, the call will not go through.



The IURC announced the area code overlay on July 31, 2013. Since that date, the thirteen month grace period began; the first seven months were utilized for making necessary technical changes, network preparation, and customer education to prepare for area code change. The next half of the grace period is for the permissive dialing for phone users to get used to the ten-digit dialing.

Similar incidents of exhausting available phone numbers have occurred throughout the world. During the 1990’s, the United States experienced a scare due to the increase of added phone lines with home and office phones, fax machines, computers for dial-up Internet, and cell phones. In order to allow for more area codes to be in use, the United States eliminated its old requirement for the middle digit of the area code to be a 1 or a 0. With this increase of available area codes, the problem was temporarily fixed. However, the United States was adding approximately 30 area codes per year during the 1990’s. If that rate hadn’t slowed down thanks to enhanced technology in the 2000’s (less of a need for phone lines for fax machines and dial-up Internet), the US would have ran out of available area codes by 2025, according to the North American Numbering Plan Administration.

The United Kingdom experienced a similar episode within the last few years. In 2011, Ofcom, the communications regulator of the UK, declared that residents will need to begin dialing their six-digit code plus the national code when making local calls. The lack of available phone numbers was expected to potentially affect 70 of the 610 UK area codes in the following ten years. Britain has some of the lowest phone bills due to numerous companies offering telephone services, yet that lead to a “pressure on supply” of phone numbers which meant the UK had that many more numbers it had to release. Ofcom believed that having people dial the national code was the simplest way to not disrupt the system of every day callers.

When Indiana was first assigned area codes in 1947, there were only two: southern Indiana was 812 and northern Indiana was 317. Today, Indiana has six area codes, yet the 812 half has remained untouched until this year. Once 930 is implemented, the IURC has projected that no other changes will be necessary to southern Indiana’s area codes until 2085. However, other area codes in Indiana will be quick to follow the expiration of 812: 317 (Indianapolis) is expected to run out in 2016, 765 (Central Indiana) in 2027, 219 (Gary) in 2032, 260 (Fort Wayne) in 2035, and 574 (South Bend) in 2036. According to the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, more than 35 states have implemented new area codes within the last two decades, and that number will continue to rise in the near future.