Cut & Paste from a Dutchess County NY Press Release. The original release can be found at

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NYDUTCHESS/bulletins/2f77178

Ten-Digit Phone Dialing Takes Effect Oct. 24th

Under FCC change, County residents and businesses
in 845 and 914 must dial area code to make local calls

Poughkeepsie, NY - Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro today reminded residents and businesses that starting Sunday, Oct. 24th, a change by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will require those living and working within area codes 845 or 914 to dial the area code when they place local calls within those area codes; several years ago, a similar change took effect for area code 518, the only other area code within Dutchess County. Dialing 911 in the event of an emergency will not be affected by this change; all preprogramed numbers in Dutchess County's 911 Communications Center have been updated.

The FCC has adopted 988 as a new three-digit number to be used nationwide to reach the National Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Crisis Lifeline, necessitating this new shift to 10-digit dialing in the affected area codes; this change is occurring in 35 states since there were 82 area codes, including 845 and 914, that use 988 as a prefix. Wireless customers nationwide may dial either 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to reach the Lifeline now; landline customers must continue to dial 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to reach the Lifeline until July 16, 2022. Additional information is available at www.fcc.gov/suicide-prevention-hotline.

County Executive Molinaro said, "I encourage residents and businesses to update the contacts' information in their mobile phones and similar systems before the Oct. 24th switch-over to avoid any inconvenience once the FCC's change takes place. This is an important change that will make it easier for callers nationwide to contact the National Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Crisis Lifeline and get the assistance they need. The simple addition of three digits to local phone calls can help save a life."

Beginning Oct. 24th, local calls dialed with only seven digits may not be completed, and a recording may inform residents that their call cannot be completed as dialed. If residents receive this recording, they must hang up and dial again using the area code and the seven-digit number.

[omitted list of things with phone numbers programmed or listed that might have to be updated]

County Executive Molinaro reminded residents and businesses that their telephone
number, including current area code, will not change nor will the price of a call, coverage area or other rates and services. Residents throughout Dutchess County will continue to dial 1 + area code + telephone number for all long-distance calls.

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On Thu, Oct 14, 2021 at 05:17:46PM -0400, John R Levine wrote:

According to George Smith <geosmith@gmail.com>:

Cut & Paste from a Dutchess County NY Press Release. The original release can be found at

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NYDUTCHESS/bulletins/2f77178

Ten-Digit Phone Dialing Takes Effect Oct. 24th

This is happening throughout New York in the 516, 607, and 716 areas
as well as nearly every other area code that still had 7 digit
dialing. Chart here:

https://nationalnanpa.com/transition_to_10_digit_dialing_for_988/docs/NPAsRequiredtoTransitionto10DD.pdf

The reason is the FCC's ill-advised decision to make 988 a short
code for suicide crisis lines. The idea of the crisis line is
reasonable, but the sensible approach would have been to add it to
the underused 211 code for essential community services rather than
screwing up the North American numbering plan.

In a few places such as North Dakota, they kept 7 digit dialing (for
now) by moving people out of an existing 988 exchange so there is no confusion between 988-XXXX and 988. They could do so because there
were only 33 active numbers in the 988 exchange in ND.

AFAICT, there's something going on behind the scenes. I'd guess the
"New" FCC is a bit gun-shy after the antics we saw during a previous administration. The "211" code, although a more logical choice, might
require extensive retraining of the civil servants already employed to
do "211" work ... and ghod help any politician who has to explain a
suicide after a "211" operator turned out to be out of his/her depth
and out of luck finding a competent crisis counselor.

Bill

--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me diretly)

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According to George Smith <geosmith@gmail.com>:

Cut & Paste from a Dutchess County NY Press Release. The original release can be found at

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NYDUTCHESS/bulletins/2f77178

Ten-Digit Phone Dialing Takes Effect Oct. 24th

Under FCC change, County residents and businesses
in 845 and 914 must dial area code to make local calls

This is happening throughout New York in the 516, 607, and 716 areas as well
as nearly every other area code that still had 7 digit dialing. Chart here:

https://nationalnanpa.com/transition_to_10_digit_dialing_for_988/docs/NPAsRequiredtoTransitionto10DD.pdf

The reason is the FCC's ill-advised decision to make 988 a short code for suicide crisis lines. The idea
of the crisis line is reasonable, but the sensible approach would have been to add it to the underused 211
code for essential community services rather than screwing up the North American numbering plan.

In a few places such as North Dakota, they kept 7 digit dialing (for now) by moving people out of an
existing 988 exchange so there is no confusion between 988-XXXX and 988. They could do because
there were only 33 active numbers in the 988 exchange in ND.

--
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

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