WASHINGTON-The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has started a consumer awareness campaign about number exhaustion.
“People have a lot of questions about their area codes. This information campaign will answer questions and minimize confusion as well as explain how the FCC plans to significantly reduce the frequency of area-code changes,” said FCC Chairman William Kennard.
“Consumers enjoy telecommunications choices that Alexander Graham Bell never dreamed of,” Kennard said. All of these choices use telephone numbers and it is estimated that even with conservation methods, all telephone numbers will be gone by early in the next century.
The consumer awareness campaign will include information on the FCC’s Web site and mailings to local newspapers around the country.
“The explosion in the use of telephone lines for new services presents a challenge for the industry and for regulators. I am certain, however, that together we will find the most efficient way to improve area-code use and meet this challenge. Americans have long enjoyed the most reliable and highest quality phone network in the world, and the FCC is committed to preserving those qualities,” Kennard said.
Last month, the FCC began looking at ways to conserve numbers. One of the ways being studied is a re-examination of technology-specific overlays. A technology-specific overlay would assign a specific area code to specific technologies such as wireless. Thus the “`111” area code would denote to everyone that a wireless device was being called. This could become useful if the FCC implements calling party pays service, said Larry Strickling, chief of the FCC’s Common Carrier Bureau, last month.
