By Amelia Killpack
Utah County residents will keep their 801 area code for at least another year.
A transition from 801 to 385 was scheduled to take place March 30, but the Utah Public Service Commission has decided the change is not necessary until 2003.
'Pools of numbers are assigned to phone providers and through consolidation and conservation, the Public Service Commission was able to determine that this area code change was not needed till 2003,' said Caroline Roemer, spokeswoman for Qwest Utah.
Salt Lake County will be the lone county in Utah that will stay with the 801 area code. Utah, Weber, Davis and Morgan counties will change to the 385 code.
The transition has been in the works for years, said John Harvey, a telecommunications specialist for the UPSC.
The North American Numbering Plan is responsible for all the phone numbers in North America. The administration keeps track of when area codes are close to running out of numbers.
'NANPA declared 801 was in jeopardy of exhaustion years ago,' Harvey said.
To alleviate the overloading of phone numbers, the USPC has decided to add another area code.
'We decided the additional area code was better than the other option to increase a local phone numbers from seven digits to ten or 11 digits.'
The transition from 801 to 385 will be divided up into two parts. The first stage will allow for people to dial either area code and still be connected.
But in September 2003, it will be mandatory to dial the 385 area code. There will be a recording that notifies of the area code change, but eventually the recording will not be available, Harvey said.
'The third player in the transition is the actual telephone companies,' Harvey said. 'They have to implement what we have chosen to do.'
Roemer said, 'The UPSC will direct phone companies on what they need to do to publicize the change - inserts in utility bills, notices on websites and public services announcements.'
For BYU students, flyers in the utility bills may not be the most effective reminder.
'Bill inserts wouldn''t make much sense for my apartment because there''s four of us and only one of us actually sees the bill,' said Heather Hansen, 23, a senior from Colleyville, Texas, majoring in English.
Residents may be inconvenienced by the transition, but telephone companies are advertising as much as possible to prepare them.