The new wireline and wireless telecommunications environment has created an increased need for telephone numbers and the use of 7-digit telephone numbers may soon be over.

The area code and exchange have long been used to identify the location of telephone service but two things are threatening that ability.  To supply more telephone numbers to areas, the exchange boundaries are being consolidated.   Area codes in the areas of Dallas, Houston and Austin/Corpus Christi are in jeopardy of being exhausted... possibly by February 1999.

A much greater impact is that of area codes and the arrival of Long Term Number Portability (LTNP).  LTNP will probably make area codes meaningless in terms of geographic location.  It's being developed to allow a telephone customer to use one telephone number for life.  If the customer moves from Maine to Texas, the customer will bring his same area code and telephone number to Texas.

How will this affect everyday use of our telephones in Odessa?

For one thing, dialing a 10-digit number to talk to your neighbors is most likely.  Office equipment connected to or used with telephone service could become obsolete.  Anything restricted to 7-digits for telephone numbers could be obsolete.

How will this affect 9-1-1 service?

Although each telephone number has a routing assignment so that it goes to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point when you dial 9-1-1, default routing (in case something goes wrong in the automatic computer routing) is primarily based upon area codes and exchanges.  This would mean that  a local 9-1-1 call could be routed to a different city or state if something is not done to maintain the integrity of the 9-1-1 system before LTNP becomes available.

Also, there are many telephone companies doing business and each has its own telephone number assignments.  For example, under LTNP, a GTE customer could switch to Southwestern Bell and keep his GTE telephone number.  A cellular customer could use their old home phone number for use in their cellular phone.  Someone has to keep track of that number for 9-1-1 purposes - the location and routing information must be maintained - regardless of the carrier.
 

What is being done to maintain the integrity of 9-1-1 service?

9-1-1 administrators are working with telecommunication companies to find solutions before these issues become problems for telephone users.  One possibility is the consolidation of 9-1-1 database information.  Currently, each telephone company maintains its own 9-1-1 database.  By creating a database network for the entire state of Texas, the 9-1-1 inquiry would be up-to-date for a caller from any location in Texas.

January 23, 1998
A committee representing the 9-1-1 entities of Texas is developing a plan which will address the problems of Number Portability and wireless needs.  Hopefully, this will allow each 9-1-1 entity to secure the features needed to share information with any or all of the other entities in Texas.  The committee will be working with the PUC, the incumbent telephone companies, and telecommunications vendors to identify alternatives.  The plan is to identify products and services that are available and make them available through a "state purchasing catalog" that will offer state-of-the-art products and services at the lowest possible rates.

The entities facing immediate rate center consolidations (the Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston areas) have identified interim solutions to the related 9-1-1 routing problems.  Although this addresses immediate needs the search for long term solutions continues.

February 11, 1998
The committee has released the first draft of a Request For Options (RFO).  This document roughly identifies the features and services necessary to accommodate new technology (specifically wireless and number-portability issues) and an integration of 9-1-1 service statewide.

Background

In 1951, there were five area codes in Texas.  By the end of 1996 that number had increased to eleven after Texas' two largest cities, Houston and Dallas, began running out of telephone numbers.

Generally, there are a total of 792 exchanges in each area code and 10,000 telephone numbers in each exchange.  That's almost 8 million numbers per area code!

On September 11, 1997, the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUC) created the Texas Number Conservation Task Force (TNCTF) to address ways of assigning and allocating number resources in Texas in a more efficient manner.  Recommendations by the TNCTF and action by the PUC are expected soon.

If you're bored with 9-1-1 information and would prefer theoretical physics, go here to listen to Brian Greene explain String Theory on National Public Radio.