[October 18, 2009]

Like it or not, it's time for extra dialing

Oct 18, 2009 (Duluth News Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- In case you missed it, as of yesterday you now have permission to dial 10 digits when calling the 715 area code -- even if you're dialing from next door.

"During the permissive dialing period, customers are encouraged to begin using 10-digit dialing to place all local calls," Wisconsin's Public Service Commission says in a cheery advisory on its Web site.

Come July 17, 2010, it won't just be permissive but mandatory, to accommodate a second area code -- 534 -- to be "overlayed" on the same geographic region as 715.

The problem is 715 is running out of numbers. Not all callers are thrilled with the solution, however, with public comments to the PSC running about two-thirds against it.

"I believe strongly that the 715 area code should be split geographically," wrote Mary Laura Rachford of Danbury, Wis. "Why, in the long run, would we want to subject the populace [to] confusion with an overlay?" Noreen Shubert of Crivitz said the elderly could have trouble remembering and questioned "how difficult it will be for a small child to remember all 10 digits for a parent's home and work phone numbers?" Sharon Stewart of Washburn was more succinct: "I have enough trouble remembering seven digits. I don't want to have to remember 10!" If you're wondering where the Superior comments are (and where Crivitz is), good question. None appeared archived in the PSC's online files, but not because locals didn't get a chance to comment.

"It was held Sept. 20, 2007, at 6:30 p.m. at the Superior Public Library," PSC spokeswoman Teresa Weidemann-Smith said of the hearing where Superior had its chance.

Regardless, public comment wasn't the only consideration.

"With a [geographic] split," she said, "you would have had an upper third of the state with a north side of 715 and a south side of 534. That would mean every phone number on the south side would have to be [changed]." Though that would have suited Superior and the South Shore fine, businesses in what would have been the new area code squawked, saying the change would cost big bucks.

That's a valid concern. But instead of adding a new code on top of an existing one and forcing the extra dialing, why not just dedicate a new code for cell phones only, as several commenters asked? "You're making a good point there," Weidemann-Smith said, adding, however, that "the PSC does not regulate cell phone usage." And even if it did, the decision, made in December, is final and any appeal period long past.

With two wars raging and the ongoing economic crisis, dialing three extra digits is hardly our worst worry. Also, with cell phones, more people are speed dialing. Who cares how many numbers the phone dials on its own? "It just makes extra work," Superior author and professor Tony Bukoski said of the extra three seconds of dialing. "Small though they might be, these minutes or seconds consume one's life more and more." Excellent point to have brought up at the hearing -- except he didn't have time.

Robin Washington is news director of the News Tribune. He may be reached at 723-5301 (area code 218, that is) or rwashington@duluthnews.com To see more of the Duluth News Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, Duluth News Tribune, Minn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

Discussions: