Starting Saturday, March 5, say goodbye to dialing seven digits to make a phone call. Mandatory 10-digit dialing is coming to the Tulsa area.
Starting in April, new phone numbers will be issued the 539 area code, though customers can ask for a 918 number if they are still available.
The move is spurred on by the explosion of new phones – cell, fax, burglar alarms and landline phones – in the Tulsa metro area. Simply put, said the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, possible combinations for phone numbers under the 918 area code are running out. By the end of 2012, the last possible 918 area code number will have been used.
That means a new 539 area code is being introduced to Oklahoma. It’s being used as an “overlay,” said the OCC. That means, geographically speaking, the new area code will sit on top of the current one. Existing 918 numbers will not need to be changed.
After March 5, people dialing a seven-digit number will hear a recording telling them to hang up and dial using 10 digits.
The OCC instituted a “permissive calling period” in August 2010 to try and let people get used to dialing 10 digits.
Emergency and utilitarian services such as 911, 411 and 211 services will not be affected.
Local calls will not be charged a long distance call, commissioners said. Also, there will be no need to dial a “1” before a local call.
Commissioners predict the Oklahoma area codes of 405 and 580 to run out of numbers sometime in 2017.
For information about the overlay of the new 539 area code or 10-digit dialing, visit the commissioner website at www.occ.state.ok.us/ or call (800) 522-8154.