405 Area Code Becoming Exhausted

[KayneMo]

Spike in phone number demand could exhaust 405 area code in central Oklahoma | News OK

"A surge in new telephone number requests could mean the 405 area code will exhaust its supply of numbers by 2016. The previous estimate said numbers would run out by 2020."

When this happens, would you rather have an overlay with area code 405? Or split it?

[venture]

Somewhat discussed here already: http://www.okctalk.com/current-event...e-numbers.html

They will likely just do an overlay. I think it is pretty rare for them to do splits anymore. The only thing is for people to get use to 10-digit dialing. Though with many on mobile phones now, they are use to it already.

[windowphobe]

405 has had two splits already. (When the original list of area codes came out in the 1940s, Oklahoma had only one; 918 was split off in 1953. You already know about 580.)

About the time 539 was overlaid over 918, I speculated that 405 would eventually get an overlay, which would be 572.

[catch22]

What is the difference between an overlay and a split?

Guessing, all new numbers would receive the new area code, and keeping existing numbers intact. And a split would be geographical, and people on one side of the line would receive new area codes/numbers?

[venture]

What is the difference between an overlay and a split?

Guessing, all new numbers would receive the new area code, and keeping existing numbers intact. And a split would be geographical, and people on one side of the line would receive new area codes/numbers?

Exactly.

The only real difference for existing customers in an overlay is a change to 10-digit dialing instead of 7-digit.

[catch22]

If you're making a 405 to 405 number, you still have to use all 10 digits?

[ZYX2]

If you're making a 405 to 405 number, you still have to use all 10 digits?

Yes. That's how it is here. You always have to dial 918. Not hard at all though, and I got used to it faster than I thought I would.

[OKCDrummer77]

If you're making a 405 to 405 number, you still have to use all 10 digits?

Yes, because that helps maintain a level playing field. Phone numbers under the new area code will be slow to come online, so they will be in the slim minority for a long time. If you only had to dial 10 digits when calling between area codes, having the new code would be a signifcant disadvantage. Similarly, service providers who were assigned prefixes under the new code would be at an unfair competitive disadvantage.

ZYX2, do you see a lot of 539 numbers up there, or are they still pretty rare?

[ZYX2]

I got a new phone number after the change to 539 and still got a 918 number. I have not yet seen a 539 number.

[metro]

I'm still curious as to why Tulsa, a smaller MSA got 2 area codes before OKC??

[ljbab728]

I'm still curious as to why Tulsa, a smaller MSA got 2 area codes before OKC??

It wasn't just because of Tulsa. It was because of the entire 918 area code.

[adaniel]

The 918 area code covers a much larger area geographically than 405, which is pretty much exclusive to the OKC Metro Area, Stillwater, and a few areas around Seminole.

You can get a 918 number as far west as Cushing and as far south as Talihina in LeFlore County.

[RadicalModerate]

If They think that They are going to take away my telephone number area code prefix, They need to know that they will have to pry my 405 out of my cold, dead fingers. (i know you are tired, 405 . . . nearly exhausted . . . yet . . . i promise what i just typed . . . unless they change you overnight . . . . =)

[Plutonic Panda]

If They think that They are going to take away my telephone number area code prefix, They need to know that they will have to pry my 405 out of my cold, dead fingers. (i know you are tired, 405 . . . nearly exhausted . . . yet . . . i promise what i just typed . . . unless they change you overnight . . . . =)

What? lol. . .

[kevinpate]

Your terms ... are acceptable.



P.S. Thanks for the new Edgar suit

[Snowman]

If you're making a 405 to 405 number, you still have to use all 10 digits?

Yes. That's how it is here. You always have to dial 918. Not hard at all though, and I got used to it faster than I thought I would.

Yes, because that helps maintain a level playing field. Phone numbers under the new area code will be slow to come online, so they will be in the slim minority for a long time. If you only had to dial 10 digits when calling between area codes, having the new code would be a signifcant disadvantage. Similarly, service providers who were assigned prefixes under the new code would be at an unfair competitive disadvantage.

That is not true in every case though, it may depend on how much switching equipment you go through to the other number. Possibly a holdover from the calling numbers that use to be long distance in the same area code before many cell phones had long distance for the same rate as local calls.

[bombermwc]

You already have to do that today for some 405 to 405 calls. Call out to a remote area, say Holdenville, from OKC and you have to dial with 10 digits. As Snowman says, it depends on the switches the call travels through to get there. The lovely recording will tell you if you need to dial it or not.

But also keep in mind, these days, long distance is free with almost all cell phones, and I believe Cox does free long distance. So the old days of 10cents a minute calls to cross the area code line, aren't really there anymore.

[MFracas84]

Any word on where we are on this? Are there plans to add another area code? When do they expect the 405 area code to run out of numbers?

[Snowman]

It will happen eventually, if it does they will either do a split of the region into two aread codes or do an overlay, my bet would be an overlay another area code on top of the existing 405 region

[venture]

It will happen eventually, if it does they will either do a split of the region into two aread codes or do an overlay, my bet would be an overlay another area code on top of the existing 405 region

Yeah I can't see them splitting again. They'll just do an overlay and we'll go to ten-digit dialing like many areas already are.

[adaniel]

Since 580 is nowhere close to exhausting its numbers, whats the likelihood that 405 is just trimmed back by a county or 2?

[bradh]

OKC is the first place I've lived where I didn't have to use 10 digit dialing since I was in middle school (I'm 34 now).

[bchris02]

In Tulsa they simply did an overlay over the 918. I can imagine they would do the same thing here. I'm still getting used to not dialing 10-digits.

[venture]

Since 580 is nowhere close to exhausting its numbers, whats the likelihood that 405 is just trimmed back by a county or 2?

The trend as been to just do overlays instead of modifying geographical boundaries it seems.

[MFracas84]

I read somewhere last year after this story came out that they have to make changes three years prior to running out and that the forecast as of that time was 2016 but that a study would have to be done to figure out if the numbers being consumed would maintain its burn rate. That story said they originally expected the numbers to run out in 2020 but that the lifeline programs were eating them up at a rate that could be as early as 2016. Well if the run out was going to be 2016 then 2013 would be the point where they would have to start the process of whatever they were going to do. I haven't heard anything since this story last year.