For the past few months the phone company’s been singing the same song: with the demand for phone lines increasing and the pool of available phone numbers decreasing, the time has come to split Chicago into separate area codes.
This change is particularly controversial because it’s not clear why or even if the shortage is so severe.
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But Cohen says the shortage was grossly exacerbated when Ameritech assigned 430,000 wireless numbers with the 312 area code to wireless phones and pagers in the suburbs.
Ironically, Ameritech endorsed such a suggestion in 1994 when it proposed a 773 area code for wireless phones and pagers. The company argued that this would reduce the demand on phone numbers, delay the need for a second area code in Chicago, and ruffle the fewest feathers.
“The rationale for the FCC decision is that wireless and wire lines are direct competitors, so it’s discriminatory to force cellular lines to have a separate area code,” says Cohen. “That’s preposterous. First of all, cellular service is not a direct competitor. The price is higher. People don’t get cellular phones as opposed to wire lines. They get it in addition to wire line service. They get it for their cars or whatever. It’s an adjunct service for those who can afford it.”
The split is supposed to leave the central business district with the old 312 area code, and give everyone else 773. “The downtown gets the old area code because of the high concentration of business there,” says Kim. “It would have been very expensive to make them all change their stationery and business cards.”
“We’ll have an extensive education period,” says Kim. “We’ll have forums in the communities and in the schools. We’ll be in malls. We’ll have a three-month permissive dialing period so the change won’t really take effect until January 1997. We want to make this as smooth a transition for our customers as we can.”
