Bellcore's number is up as keeper of area codes

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Bellcore's number is up as keeper of area codes

01/06/98

By Joseph R. Perone
STAFF WRITER

It takes a United Nations of sorts to raise an area code.

Diplomacy and cajoling are all part of selecting new phone numbers -- a task that will soon fall to a new chargé d'affaires.

Lockheed Martin Information Systems becomes the new keeper of North America's phone numbers Jan. 19, taking over from Bellcore. Lockheed will work with local phone companies in assigning new area codes and exchange numbers.

The job of administering area codes will shift from a Bellcore office in Piscataway to Lockheed offices in Teaneck and Washington, D.C. Lockheed was the low bidder to handle the phone number database for the North American Numbering Plan Administration. It won a five-year $25 million contract to keep track of area codes in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

"Numbers are the language we use to tell the telecommunications network what to do," said administration director Ron Conners. "They are a finite resource and must be used efficiently if all the promises of the Information Age are to be kept."

Conners, a 57-year-old engineer based in Washington, D.C., used to work for Bellcore at its Morristown headquarters. Now he runs the numbers for Lockheed. He said it doesn't take Madame Marie to predict that the nation will run out of area codes by 2025.

"The only option is to lengthen the phone number" by using a four-digit area code or an eight-digit local number, he said. Today, area codes are only three digits, and local numbers consist of seven digits.

State regulators will vote as early as next month on whether to add a new area code in South Jersey to relieve phone traffic congestion in mostly rural 609 territory. Two new area codes, 732 and 973, were used to divide North Jersey on Dec. 6.

An easy way to remember the 973 area code is to recall the uniform numbers of Yankee greats Roger Maris (9), Mickey Mantle (7) and Babe Ruth (3). As for 732, remember the Mets with Ed Kranepool, Rafael Santana and Bobby Valentine.

Conners, who owns a home in Morristown, said he's misdialed the new codes "many times" because "your fingers are used to dialing a certain way." Cocktail parties can be downers when people find out he's involved with "area code relief" -- not a charity but a kind way of describing how an area code is split up. "People want to take you outside and punch you," he said.

Maybe that's why Bellcore gave up the contract after 14 years. Bellcore goes to great lengths to say it merely offers a pool of numbers from which local phone companies such as Bell Atlantic/New Jersey may choose. Bell Atlantic responds that all it can do is pick from the numbers it is offered by the administrator.

Area codes can be expanded through a "split" in which an area is divided in two, or an "overlay," in which new phone numbers are assigned the new area code while existing numbers remain the same.

Bell Atlantic/New Jersey is hoping for an overlay in the 609 area code, while competitors that want to enter the local phone market are hoping for a split. Phil Leary, a spokesman for the state Board of Public Utilities, said the regulatory body is reviewing public comments and will make a decision in the next several weeks.

The 973 and 732 area codes are expected to last about five years before new area codes might have to devised. The latest codes were selected from about a dozen potential three-digit numbers that are reserved for the state, according to Bell Atlantic/New Jersey spokesman Tim Ireland.

"We do the best we can to plan, but nobody has been able to predict how many phone numbers people are going to use," Ireland said. "They seem to gobble up more and more every year for fax machines, pagers, cell phones and computer lines."

The limited selection of phone numbers might be preserved in the future by assigning fewer numbers for every new exchange, Leary said. For example, in the phone number (973) 877-4141, the 877 portion is the central office exchange. Local phone companies dole out central office exchange numbers. However, Lockheed will take over that function within 18 months to ensure that an impartial third party is handling the number pool.

Eventually, new computer software can be used to limit the phone numbers within each new exchange, Leary said. "Instead of assigning 10,000 numbers per exchange, you could assign only 1,000 numbers as a way of conserving them," he said.

"Some carriers may be hoarding numbers," said Chris Landes, a telecommunications analyst for TeleChoice Inc. of Verona.

The mid-Atlantic region is one of several designated for so-called "number portability," which means customers who choose a new local phone company would be able to keep their old numbers. Lockheed Martin is overseeing number portability throughout the eastern part of the country.

"Area codes used to be so geographic. If you dialed 212 or 201, you knew which state you were in," said Landes, the analyst. "Now, when you dial 973, people are asking, 'Am I in New Jersey?'"

With advances in computer software, computer owners might eventually be able to hold onto their e-mail addresses even if they switch service providers, he said. "Some folks might want a vanity number just like their license plates," he said.

One area code nobody is clamoring for is 666 -- a number sequence that some people associate with Satan. "That code is available for assignment," conceded Ken Branson, a spokesman for Bellcore.