Starting Monday, Boston residents will have to dial 10 digits for all calls, both long distance and local.
At Boston University, students will still be able to dial only the final five digits for numbers within the University. However, they too will have to accommodate to the changes on all outside calls.
“The more students know, the less problems they’ll have,” said Sean Kinneen, BU Associate Director of Telecommunications. “Students have gotten an e-mail telling them about the situation, and tomorrow they’ll receive a voice message from me explaining the situation.”
The e-mail included the location of a BU website where students with dial-up Internet connections can download software that will dial the new 10-digit number.
“The software is incredibly easy to use,” Kinneen said. “The only potential problem is that people will wait until the last minute to get it.”
The reason behind the 10-digit numbers is the addition of four new area codes to the Boston area, Kinneen said, though BU will remain in the 617 region. The new area codes are being implemented due to a shortage of phone numbers.
“Pagers, cell phones, houses with two phone lines — these all take up phone numbers,” he said. “What will happen is that the new area codes will allow duplicate numbers. The number 123-4567 will exist not only in the 617 area code, but in the new 857 area code as well. Without dialing the area code with the phone number, the directory won’t be sure where you want to go.
“However, prices will remain the same and emergency numbers such as 911 will not be changed.”
Kinneen said the option chosen by the state this year is preferable to the option Boston previously took in the 1990s when they split what was the 617 area code into 617 and 781 codes, Kinneen said. Seven-digit numbers were retained, but many businesses and homes were unable to keep their old numbers.
“Hopefully in my lifetime, we won’t get bigger than 10-digit numbers,” Kinneen said. “But there will be more area code additions, possibly as soon as five years from now.”
Kinneen thinks people will take the changes in stride.
“This is one of those unavoidable things that everyone knew was going to happen,” he said. “People don’t really have a choice. I think they’d rather do this, though, than possibly lose their phone numbers.”
“I hate the fact that I’ll have to dial 1-617 to make a call within my area code,” said College of Arts and Sciences senior Rachel Zink. “It’s a pain in the neck. I think they could’ve found a better way to save numbers.”
CAS junior Dennis Antonio disagreed.
“I think it’s only a slight inconvenience,” he said. “It’s not that big of a problem.”
But in the era of convenience and wireless communication, one of the problems with the extra digits that students foresaw was changing cell phone lists.
“I’m going to have to reprogram my entire cell phone address book,” said College of Communication senior Susan Lindahl. “I have over one hundred names in there.”
“Cell phones are going to be a difficult adjustment,” agreed CAS senior Devin McPhie.
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