                                          
                              3         3 
                    3          3                 
                    3           ~A                 
                    3        3    3                     
                    3        3    3                        
                    3          3                  
                          3            
 
                    Damned       Fucking        Shit 
                        Edited by Access Denied 
 
                              Issue #7 
                      Title: 414 Area Code Split 
                      Date: 10/11/93 
                      By: Access Denied 
 
 
                       414 Area Code Split 
 
Here's an interesting article.  It mainly applies to 414, but it's 
interesting reading for people of other area codes. 
 
[This was taken from the Milwaukee Journal, Oct. 10, 1993] 
[All comments by the editor (Access Denied) are in []s.] 
 
                  Touch-tones to get a workout 
                    when new area codes begin 
 
     Imagine this:  You pick up your phone to call your neighbor 
across the street and you have to dial an area code that's so 
different from your own you think he's in another state or country.  
[Country? Come on now...Canada maybe.] 
     That's probably exactly what you will be doing in a few years 
to reach not only your new neighbor, but any number of newcomers in 
this part of the state [South East Wisconsin]. 
     Wisconsin, like other states, is running out of telephone 
numbers. 
     And nowhere in the state is that problem more pressing than in 
that portion of Wisconsin that uses the 414 area code, a thickly 
populated area that covers most of eastern Wisconsin from Kenosha 
to Green Bay and beyond. 
     "There are no more area codes," sighs Gary Drexler, a member 
of the Wisconsin State Telephone Associations's engineering 
committee, which is examining this particular bare cupboard.  "The 
guy down the street from you will have to have a different number." 
     "The 414 area will be split some way in the 1996-1997 time 
frame.  We will need a new area code by then," agrees Phil Jenkins, 
an engineer in the telecommunications division of the state Public 
Service Commission, which regulates utilities in the state. 
 
More 11-Digit Calls 
 
     But wait.  Before the state starts thinking about giving out 
new area codes in the 414 area or anywhere else, it has another job 
to do.  And state commissioners probably will do that in about two 
weeks. 
     Be prepared, then, to begin dialing 11 digits instead of 
today's 8, for long-distance calls within the same area code.  [Oh 
darn.  If you can't deal with that you should be dead.] 
     The state telephone association is recommending that change as 
a first step toward handling the number crunch -- and PSC staffers 
said last week that they supported it. 
     Commissioners are to take up the proposed change at a meeting 
later this month.  If they agree, you will have to start dialing 1 
plus the area code plus the number you are trying to reach for all 
long-distance calls. 
     Today, you don't have to dial the area code for long-distance 
calls within the same area code. 
 
Change Comes In 1995 
 
     The phone association says it wants to begin this new dialing 
sequence on Jan. 1, 1995.  That's when a new national numbering 
plan goes into effect. 
     The national plan also grew out of the same problem: not 
enough area codes as we know them today to go around. 
     The explosion in fax machines, cellular phones, pagers, 
computer modems and other technology has gobbled up almost the 
entire combination of available numbers today.  [Look at New York.] 
     The current system uses either a 1 or 0 in the middle of the 
three-digit area code to help telephone switching equipment 
distinguish between area codes and the first three digits of the 
local exchange. 
     The trouble is that that gives only 144 area codes, each of 
which can support about 7.8 million seven-digit phone numbers.  
[780 exchnages?  Sure, why not?] So, the industry has decided to 
begin using other numbers in the middle of the area codes, which 
will give it 640 new area codes. 
     That means not only that telephone switching equipment will 
have to be upgraded, but that something will need to be done about 
dialing patterns, such as the first three digits of local 
exchanges, so that computerized switching equipment does not get 
confused.  [Good bye ESS7.  Hello ESS10?] 
     The Wisconsin State Telephone Association, a trade group of 
phone companies in the state, including Ameritech and GE, is 
recommending that the area code be dialed each time for all long- 
distance calls even within the same area code. 
     Let's take 224-2280 as an example.  [Milwaukee Journal 
Business line or something.] In the future, that 224 could be 
either an area code or a local exchange number.  But phone 
switching equipment would be able to recognize the difference if 
someone dialed a combination of 1 plus 10 digits.  That's why the 
state phone association is suggesting the change Drexler said. 
     What does this mean for consumers? 
     For existing residential customers it means nothing much more 
that the inconvenience of dialing a few extra numbers. 
     For people who move into the 414 area code from outside the 
area, it will mean assignment of a new area code, other than 414.  
People who move from one local calling area to another, say from 
Shorewood to Oak Creek, would also get a new area code. 
     For businesses, such as telemarketing firms, the change could 
be a big headache.  It could mean extra time in dialing.  [Oh darn 
again.  I'll really miss those shitheads calling me at 6 in the 
morning.  They can burn in hell for all I care.] 
     Bob Schulze, customer services director for Schneider 
Communications, a Green Bay based company that provides telephone 
service to 18,000 businesses, suggests businesses begin thinking 
today about upgrading their PBXs, or private branch exchanges, [PBX 
= Private Branch Exchange.  So?  Like that really explains it to 
the average idiot who lives in Milwaukee (85 percent of the 
people)] so that dialing changes can be programmed. 
     "If I were a business customer I would very quickly be talking 
to my programmers about what kind of equipment would be needed," he 
said.  "They should look at this carefully." 
     The state telephone association, however, has tried to 
minimize the disruptions. 
     For example, it could have suggested giving all suburbs a new 
area code, as was done a few years ago in the Chicago area.  
[708/312 for all you idiots.] 
     But that would have resulted in a great deal of extra expenses 
for businesses, which would have needed to change letterheads, 
business cards and other things.  That's why, Drexler said, the 
phone companies are suggesting the state approve a system in which 
all newcomers to 414 would get new area codes.  [Why you would WANT 
to come to 414 is beyond me though.] 
 
[Here's my comments.  I think this is a needed change.  If anyone 
bitches about it, fuck them.  Like it's so hard to dial 3 more 
numbers when you dial someone.  Maybe all those people will die.  
This change will happen anyway so there's no need to protest it.  
People will get used to it very fast.] 
 
 
             Distribution Sites:                      
        If you're on the BBSs you know it.            
           Fuck you if you're not.                    
 
 
