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Count on it: 10-digit dialing starts tomorrow
Wednesday, July 11, 2001 By Michael Kolber, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
If you're not ready for 10-digit local dialing, you still have a few hours to prepare. Beginning at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow, Verizon technicians throughout the Pittsburgh area will be adjusting switching centers throughout the 412 and 724 area codes to require 10-digit dialing -- dialing the area code before the number for local calls.
•will not be required for calls between the 412, 724 and 878 codes (but the call will still go through if you dial 1 first).
•will still be required for other area codes.
•Speed-dial buttons
•Internet software connections software
Because there are so many switchboxes throughout the region, it may be 10 days before all the changes are made, but beginning tomorrow local callers may hear a recorded message telling them to redial if they fail to use the area code.
Only after a neighborhood's switchboxes have been adjusted will 10-digit dialing become mandatory. Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski said Downtown will probably be the first locale switched to 10-digit dialing. The company suggests that customers start using area codes now to avoid confusion.
The switch to 10-digit dialing is required because next month telephone companies will begin using area code 878 for new phone numbers issued in the 412 and 724 areas.
The Federal Communications Commission requires 10-digit dialing in regions where a new area code is introduced as an overlay rather than as a separate geographic area.
The new code is required since numbers in 412 and 724 are currently projected to run out next year. The 724 area code is just over three years old, having been created in a split of the 412 area code in 1998.
Businesses that haven't adjusted their phone equipment for the change may not have time to do so before tomorrow, when their phones may not work. But residential phone customers will have to make few changes, aside from remembering to dial the additional digits.
Those who have programmed local numbers into speed-dial buttons will need to reprogram them to include area codes.
Those who connect to the Internet over phone lines must adjust connection settings to dial 10 digits.
Although the steps required to change this setting vary with computer brand and Internet connection method, many users of computers running Microsoft Windows will only need to check a setting in their Dial-Up Networking control panel that tells the computer to dial the area code before a local call.
On Macintosh computers, a similar setting needs to be adjusted in the PPP control panel.
Dial-in customers of America Online will have to reconfigure their computers to dial the 412 area code, said spokesman Nicholas Graham. They can do so starting today by clicking the blue "access numbers" button on the sign-on screen and selecting new access numbers with the area code, he said.
Graham said AOL customers dialing from the 724 area code likely already are using 10-digit numbers.
Stargate, the largest local Internet provider, has been telling its users for months they will need to reset their dial-up software, and they are beginning to take notice. One out of every three or four calls to Stargate's customer-support lines is related to 10-digit dialing, said Jim Fuchs, the company's director of customer service and call center operations.
"We've had a lot of users call in, so we're hoping [tomorrow] won't be too bad," Fuchs said.
A "1" before the area code will no longer be required for calls within the 412, 724 or 878 area codes, but the calls will still go through if a "1" is dialed. Phone rates and local calling areas are not changing.
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Tomorrow: All calls made within the 412 or 724 area codes will require the area code before the number.