Friday, Dec. 4, 1998

Get Used To It: 361 Our New Area Code

Callers can start using new number in February,
must do so by October

By ANNA M. TINSLEY
Scripps Howard Austin Bureau

   AUSTIN - Callers dialing 512 to reach the Coastal Bend will have to learn a new area code - 361 - by next year.
   Texas Public Utility Commission officials on Thursday announced the region's new area code, which callers may start using in February and must use by October.
   The Coastal Bend is losing 512 because the area code is expected to run out of numbers next year. PUC officials decided that Austin, rather than Corpus Christi, should keep 512.
   "This is going to be an adjustment, but people across the country change area codes all the time," said Tom Utter, Corpus Christi's assistant city manager.
   

The timetable

   Under the PUC's plan: There will be no change until February, when callers can dial 512 or 361. That lasts until Sept. 18. Then, a message telling callers of the area code change and instructing them to redial using 361, will last until Oct. 16. After that, people who dial 512 and expect to get a Coastal Bend telephone number will either get an Austin telephone number or a message telling them they dialed the wrong number.
   That's not a message everyone is looking forward to hearing.
   "As a longtime resident, I'd gotten so used to 512," said Chris Garcia, a Corpus Christi Independent School District employee who has lived in Corpus Christi since 1962.
   "It's certainly not a life-threatening change, and it's certainly not that it's going to affect my household that much, but it's inconvenient," she said. "You get so used to being able to recall numbers."
   

Getting used to it

    Public Utility Commission officials said customers can spare themselves some hassle by getting used to the new area code before they must.
   "As with any change, this will take some getting used to," said Katy Bohuslav, a PUC spokeswoman.
   That means reprogramming equipment such as switchboards and fax machines. It also means ordering new stationery and business cards with the 361, rather than 512, area code.
   Del Mar College, which changed the prefixes of its telephone numbers in July, will have to overhaul its stationery a second time.
   "We talked a little about thinking this was a possibility when they knew that all Del Mar exchanges would have to change," Del Mar spokeswoman Claudia Jackson said. "At that time, we were hoping that if the area code was going to change, it would be a little later."
   But businesses don't have to scramble to change the letterhead just yet.
   People dialing the 361 area code before February will not be able to complete their calls. A team of industry representatives will meet next week to decide what day in February the new area code can be dialed, Bohuslav said.
   They also will decide what type of information materials - notes in phone bills, ads in papers, fliers sent to homes - to send out notifying residents of the change, she said.
   No telephone numbers are changed when a new area code is assigned.
   

Adjustment time

    Because of the Coastal Bend's booming tourism business, state officials decided to give area residents and businesses a longer time to get accustomed to the area code than normally given.
   It usually takes about six months to implement new area codes - three months of letting customers use either the former or new area code and three months of callers hearing a message giving the new code and saying the area code has changed.
   The new area code in the Coastal Bend is expected to provide enough local telephone numbers to last through 2011, according to industry reports.
   Austin residents likely will have to turn to 10-digit dialing in 2001, when the city is expected to need another area code.
   PUC Commissioners decided that taking 512 out of Corpus Christi and South Texas would disrupt fewer customers than taking it out of Austin and surrounding communities.
   

Counties affected

   The 512 area code includes about 763,000 telephone lines in the Austin area, which includes Georgetown, San Marcos, Bastrop, Lampasas and Taylor.
   There are about 492,000 lines in the Corpus Christi area, which includes Victoria, Refugio and Kingsville.
   The 512 area code extends to many South Texas counties, including Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Kenedy, Live Oak, McMullen, Nueces, Refugio and San Patricio.
   But not everyone in the Coastal Bend is buzzing about the impending swap.
   "It doesn't really bother me too much," said Jessie White, a school board clerk for the Tuloso-Midway Independent School District. "I mean, you know, I can't think of a single thing other than the inconvenience of having to (notify out-of-town friends.) That's a small thing for a person to have to do."
   Scripps Howard Austin Bureau writer Anna M. Tinsley can be reached at (512) 478-9644 or by e-mail at tinsleya@scripps.com. Staff writer Heather Howard contributed to this report. She can be reached at 886-3767 or by e-mail at howardh@scripps.com

  © 1998 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.