End of line for 415 - 2nd area code coming for S.F., Marin

[yuiyoshida]

Starting 2/21-End of line for 415 - 2nd area code coming for S.F., Marin
Numbers tapped out in S.F., Marin

By David R. Baker and C.W. Nevius

The days of 415 are numbered.

Starting in 13 months, new phone numbers issued in San Francisco and Marin County will no longer begin with those three familiar digits. Instead, they'll carry a new area code: 628.

California regulators approved the switch Thursday, creating an area code overlay for San Francisco and Marin counties. Existing numbers won't change. But come February 2015, all new numbers will start with 628.

The reason? After 66 years of service, 415 is almost used up.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/End-of-line-for-415-2nd-area-code-coming-for-5079322.php

Officials are urging residents to begin to practice dialing 1-415 before their calls starting on August 16, even though local phone calls without the area code

This sucks, we have to dial 415 when we call? What idiot thought this up??

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/08/09/local-callers-must-dial-415-when-area-code-628-debuts-marin-county/

[KamaAina]

1. This is going to get like Manhattan with the 212/646 overlay

People pay for 212 numbers!

[yuiyoshida]

2. It says when you get a new phone number

You lose the 415 area code. WTF?

[Lucky Luciano]

5. Yup. Blocks of 212 numbers are very expensive. nt

[olddots]

3. when you get that new number

You get junk calls from the 1990s too .

[yuiyoshida]

4. 1990s?

There are plenty enough of them in 2015!

[Lordquinton]

6. Speaking from the 925

It's about time they have to switch codes!

[CreekDog]

10. yeah but at least you have just one area code

what's going to happen in San Francisco is that there will be multiple codes, so an SF # could be 415 or 628.

a # in Walnut Creek would always be 925.

[Lordquinton]

12. Look up the history of the 925

In the 80's, when I first learned my phone number it was 415, we shared it with Alameda and SF, then somewhere late 80's early 90's SF had gobbled up so many numbers that they completely took over the 415 code and left us with 510, then at the end of the 90's the same thing happened and Alameda area took 510 away from us and we got 925.

My dad's phone number has been the same sense the 50's, but the area code has changed 3 times.

So, I'm still glad that now SF has to deal with the area code problem and not the east bay this time.

[CreekDog]

13. payback for electing Bill Baker all those years

[Lordquinton]

15. At least we voted him out

You'd be surprised at how red it gets on the other, other side of the hills.

[JayhawkSD]

7. There's no point in complaining.

It's not some government plot. They're not doing it for some nefarious reason. They ran out of numbers. Once they have issued 9,999,999 telephones, they either do the overlay or they tell you "no more phones."

Actually, it's fewer than that because some numbers, such as numbers starting with 555, cannot be issued, but...

[daredtowork]

8. The system needs to be simplified for fee structure

It's hard on people on Lifeline who don't have the cellphone option. They get surprised by local toll calls - sometimes within their own area code - that they don't expect.

The problem is that Lifeline for landlines is a DISCOUNT, it's not fully subsidized. It costs around $11/month with all government fees tacked on. This might seem like chump change before you realize that people on welfare get NO direct cash for basic necessities, including utilities and communications bills. So those little surprise fees on top of the basic bill hurt. I don't need my next door neighbor to be outside of my area code.

On top of that, job recruiters also often just assume everyone has a cellphone, and they leave back a number that is long distance for people who don't have a budget to call them back. The Department of Rehabilitation, which is in theory there to provide disabled people with what support they need to get back into the workplace hasn't been able to wrap their collective Authorization minds around this one yet: people need all sorts of things to get back into the workforce, but surely EVERYONE has a cellphone! Doesn't Obama provide a free one? Sigh.

Anyway life is full of bureaucracy and complication on the bottom already. This seems to add another element to that.

[CreekDog]

11. the change in area code doesn't make a call a toll call

it's the distance, not dialing outside an area code.

it's been that way for years.

[AndyTiedye]

9. Making Everyone dial 1-Areacode+ for Local Calls is a Drive for More Revenue from Wrong Numbers

That is why they go for overlays instead of splitting Marin off into a separate area code.
Make everyone dial 1-415 even to call next door, and sometimes they will dial
1-416 (Toronto, Canada) and run up their phone bill a bit.
Few will go to the trouble to get the charges removed.

[CreekDog]

14. a conspiracy?

oh please.