Area Codes

After the news about the new area code that will be available around Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore broke, I spoke with Sheri Parks, an American Studies professor at the University of Maryland about the significance of area codes in our lives. We discussed how many people hang on to a cell phone number even after they have moved on to a new town. She described area codes as a marker that offers a window into one's background. I'm sure most people keep their old numbers out of convenience --- you don't have to learn a new seven digits and you don't have to force your friends and relatives to update their address books and cell phone directories.

New area code 667 is coming to town starting Saturday, state regulators said Wednesday. Customers in Central Maryland and the Eastern Shore requesting a new phone number for any device may get the new area code. Customers with existing phone numbers or those who move within the same local exchange calling area and choose to keep their numbers will not be affected. The Maryland Public Service Commission said last year that a new area code was needed because the existing 410 and 443 codes could be exhausted in early 2012.

The staff of the Public Service Commission and the local telephone giant, Bell Atlantic Corp., want to solve the problem of dwindling phone numbers by pleasing technocrats rather than consumers. Their "solution" is sure to distress telephone users no end by forcing everyone to dial a 10-digit number even to contact a neighbor across the street.Even worse, you'll have no idea if your neighbor shares your area code. Virtually every call will require a telephone book. The resulting chaos -- and furor -- is as predictable as night follows day. And yet the local telephone experts don't seem sensitive to the firestorm they could ignite.

My family had scarcely moved into our northwest Baltimore City home forty-some years ago when C+P Telephone decreed our 358 (FLeetwood 8) phone number would be changed to a number bearing a brand new, 578 exchange. Much worse than the impossibility of turning JKL (5) and PQRS (7) into a word was the utter unfamiliarity and rootlessness of a new exchange - one that wouldn't immediately convey a sense of place. I've always had a thing for numbers; the black and whiteness of 2 plus 2 always equaling 4 was a childhood comfort amid daily shades of gray, and it's something I still cling to in adulthood.

The staff of the Public Service Commission yesterday came out against a plan that would split Maryland geographically into four area codes when the supply of 410 and 301 telephone numbers runs out in about two years.Instead, the PSC staff supported a plan proposed by Bell Atlantic Corp. that would require Marylanders' fingers to do a little more walking each time they make a local call. Under the so-called "overlay" plan, seven-digit local dialing would go the way of the 10-cent pay phone call.

THERE'S nothing rotten in the state of Denmark -- or England, Israel or Italy -- but one cannot say the same of the states serviced by Bell Atlantic Corp. Saying they are running out of phone numbers, Bell Atlantic and the other Baby Bells have caused citizens and businesses multimillion dollar losses by piling on new area codes. And judging from the evidence, the day is not far off when people will have to dial the number 1 plus their own area code just to call their next-door neighbor. These are ideas that reek of rot.Other countries, however, perhaps easily predicting years ago that cell phones, pagers and fax machines inevitably would drain the pool of available phone numbers, have done what is unthinkable to Bell Atlantic.

The state People's Counsel's office urged the Public Service Commission yesterday to reject a plan that would give Maryland two new area codes and bring about the demise of the seven-digit phone call.Teresa Czarski, speaking for the office that represents the interests of Maryland's residential ratepayers, told the PSC that an "overlay" scheme that would add two new area codes on top of the existing 301 and 410 would be confusing and cumbersome for telephone customers.With the state's supply of telephone numbers expected to run out in late 1997 because of explosive growth in the use or cellular phones, pagers, modems and fax machines, the commission is facing a choice of the lesser of two evils as it seeks a way to add two new area codes to the existing 301 and 410.An overlay would require 10-digit dialing of all local calls; a geographical split would further subdivide a state that was united in a single area code until three years ago.Ms.

Apparently dissatisfied with the options it has been presented for creating two new area codes in Maryland, the state Public Service Commission yesterday asked telephone companies and other parties in the case to give it some more palatable alternatives.So far, the PSC has been given two proposals for dealing with the state's impending shortage of telephone numbers in the 301 and 410 area codes.One would split both existing area codes in two, following an industry-drafted map that would separate Baltimore from Baltimore County and most other suburbs.

They have trouble ordering taxis, cashing checks and getting pizzas delivered.They are the roughly 17,000 unlucky telephone customers with the state's newest area codes -- 443 and 240."The biggest problem is that no one believes you," said Kashmere Davis, 42, of Gaithersburg.Davis said that when she needs to provide her telephone number with the 240 area code, store clerks become confused. And taxi dispatchers are blunt -- they tell her no such area code exists in Maryland."I tell them to call me back to check, and then I have to hang up and they call me back," she said.

A coalition of Bell Atlantic's potential rivals has proposed its own plan for splitting Maryland into four area codes -- offering the Public Service Commission an alternative to a "bizarre" map that would have cut Baltimore off from Baltimore County.The group's proposed solution provides the PSC with another choice besides the original map presented by a Bell Atlantic-led industry group and Bell Atlantic's own preferred solution -- an "overlay" that would create two new area codes within the borders of the current 301 and 410. That solution would require callers to dial 10 digits for all local calls.

After the news about the new area code that will be available around Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore broke, I spoke with Sheri Parks, an American Studies professor at the University of Maryland about the significance of area codes in our lives. We discussed how many people hang on to a cell phone number even after they have moved on to a new town. She described area codes as a marker that offers a window into one's background. I'm sure most people keep their old numbers out of convenience --- you don't have to learn a new seven digits and you don't have to force your friends and relatives to update their address books and cell phone directories.

Starting in March, residents in counties on the Eastern Shore and in central Maryland requesting new phone numbers may receive a new area code, state utility regulators announced Wednesday. The new area code, 667, is being activated because the Federal Communications Commission expects the existing 410 and 443 codes will be exhausted in early 2012, said Douglas Nazarian, chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission. It will be issued in the areas where 410 and 443 are currently used: the city of Baltimore as well as Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Dorchester, Harford, Howard, Kent, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico and Worcester counties, according to the commission.

People in Central Maryland and the Eastern Shore will have to add a new set of three digits to their contact lists starting in March. Customers requesting a new phone number for any device may get the new area code 667, state regulators announced Wednesday. The new code is being activated because the Federal Communications Commission expects the existing 410 and 443 codes will be exhausted in early 2012, said Douglas Nazarian, chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission. Demand drove the need to create a new area code, including a sudden spike in the number of new numbers requested in September.

No community has proved immune to the housing slump, least of all expensive places. But they're still expensive. The 10 priciest ZIP codes in the Baltimore metro area all had averages above $500,000 during the first half of the year, topping off at nearly $845,000 in Howard County's Glenwood community. Baltimore's Homeland, with its six lakes and historic homes, was the most expensive neighborhood in the city and also had average sale prices above half a million. What many of the suburban communities have in common are big homes with super-sized yards.

The ZIP code ties of Brooklyn Park and Orchard Beach to Baltimore will not be dissolved, the U.S. Postal Service has decreed -- but Del. John R. Leopold vows to continue a 15-year quest for a change in their numeric identities. Residents of the Anne Arundel County areas have complained for years about delivery confusion and higher auto insurance rates that they believe result from having a city ZIP. "For some people, it's a petty thing," said Woody Bowen, vice president of the Olde Brooklyn Park Improvement Association, "but try to battle your insurance company ... or direct someone to find your community."

EastWhen Arizona went to camp last month, the Cardinals were rated contenders. After a training camp of holdouts, injuries and a serious car accident, they appear to be in shambles. Their 43-7 loss to Oakland in the preseason finale was their worst in the preseason since 1956 when they lost to the Los Angeles Rams, 69-21. Alonzo Spellman, who was out of football last year with off-the-field problems, will start for Dallas in place of Leon Lett, who's serving a drug suspension. "Anybody who walks back into what they did before wants to be where they were before.

The future of the seven-digit local phone call seemed bleak yesterday as the Maryland Public Service Commission raised skeptical questions about a plan that would stave off its demise for nine more years.Supporters of the plan, which would alleviate an impending shortage of telephone numbers by dividing the state's two area codes into four, told the PSC that their revised version of a geographical split answered most of the commissioners' objections to an earlier map.That proposal -- based on an industry consensus of the best possible split but supported by virtually nobody -- would have placed Baltimore and Baltimore County in separate area codes and would have split Montgomery County.

The seven-digit phone call to the neighbor down the street will fade into history under a decision issued yesterday by the state Public Service Commission.Faced with a need for two new area codes in Maryland, the PSC decided the lesser of two evils was to "overlay" the new prefixes within the boundaries of the existing 410 and 301 prefixes. Thus, a longtime Baltimore-area resident could have a 410 number while a new neighbor could have a different area code.Under the overlay system, millions of Marylanders will have to dial 10 digits for each local call -- no matter how short the distance -- beginning about two years from now.By a 4-1 vote, with Commissioner Susanne Brogan dissenting, the PSC rejected an alternative that would have split the two existing area codes along geographic lines.

NEW YORK -- This is one number that can't be put on hold any longer.New phone customers in Manhattan will start to see phone numbers with the new 646 area code starting July 1. New customers in other parts of the city will be assigned 347 numbers after Oct. 1.Only newly ordered phone lines in New York City will be assigned the new codes, allowing customers with the coveted 212 status symbol and 718 code to hang on to those numbers. State regulators chose last year to use the "overlay" method that lays the new code on an existing area rather than splitting Manhattan or other parts of New York geographically.

They have trouble ordering taxis, cashing checks and getting pizzas delivered.They are the roughly 17,000 unlucky telephone customers with the state's newest area codes -- 443 and 240."The biggest problem is that no one believes you," said Kashmere Davis, 42, of Gaithersburg.Davis said that when she needs to provide her telephone number with the 240 area code, store clerks become confused. And taxi dispatchers are blunt -- they tell her no such area code exists in Maryland."I tell them to call me back to check, and then I have to hang up and they call me back," she said.