GREENFIELD — The 317 area code is running out of numbers, which means an overhaul in the way many people make phone calls is on the horizon.
The Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor reported Wednesday that the 317 area code, which covers Indianapolis and its suburbs, including Hancock County, is expected to exhaust the supply of numbers by 2017.
In response, the telecommunications industry has filed a formal request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to add a second area code using an “all-services overlay” method. Public hearings on the matter will be held this fall before the commission decides how to proceed, according to a news release from the consumer counselor’s office.
Such a change would eventually alter dialing practices even for local calls. Businesses and other entitites that place a lot of calls within the area code say the new arrangement will cause inconvenience at the outset as they adjust.
The changes are a matter of when, not if, said Anthony Swinger, a spokesman for the consumer counselor’s office. He estimates the changes will go into effect by 2016.
Under an all-services overlay, the new area code would be assigned only to new phone customers, but the changes would affect all consumers, even those with long-established 317 numbers, the office said.
Current customers would not be required to change their numbers; however, the new code would be superimposed over the entire 317 region. That means eventually, everyone would have to dial the area code plus the seven-digit number for local calls.
The transition could be difficult for entitites whose communication systems are a critical part of doing business.
“It will be huge – not the end result, but getting to the end result,” said Rob Matt, vice president of Hancock Regional Hospital.
The hospital regularly makes calls and sends faxes with information about patient care. In cases where the numbers have been pre-programmed, it’s likely a sizeable update to the hospital’s “contact dictionary” will be in store, Matt said.
“All those things that are regular daily patient care-related communications will have to be redone,” he said.
While using the all-services overlay method is the telecommunication industry’s recommendation, its petition to the regulatory commission includes two alternatives.
•The new area code would be assigned only to new customers in the central portion of Marion County. Customers outside that area would keep their numbers, and their dialing practices would remain unchanged until the 317 numbers run out.
•Customers in the following areas would be required to use 10-digit dialing: Indianapolis; Carmel; Fishers; Oaklandon; Cumberland; Acton; Greenwood; West Newton, Plainfield, Brownsburg, Zionsville. New area code numbers would be assigned to customers only within that overlay area.
But officials say those alternatives would provide only a temporary solution. Under the first option, the area with the new area code would have to be expanded after an estimated 6½ years, according to a news release from the regulatory commission.
The second option has a significantly longer lifespan – about 18½ years – before it would require an expansion.
According to the utility consumer counselor’s office, Indiana is one of 39 states in the past 20 years that have been forced to add new area codes to accommodate the abundance of cellphones and other wireless communications devices.
Alyssa Mosley, 18, can relate to that trend. Wednesday afternoon, she tapped away on her smartphone as she studied at the Hancock County Public Library.
At one point, the way to reach an entire family was by dialing the same landline number. Mosley said her family disconnected the landline in favor of everyone getting a cellphone with its own number.
Mosley isn’t looking forward to the change, especially if it requires 10-digit dialing for what have previously been local numbers that didn’t require an area code.
“I feel like a lot of people are going to get confused by it,” she said.
An overlay has been utilized in every case since 2008, regulators say. Prior to that, new area codes were introduced through a geographic split, which required many consumers to change their numbers.
That proved cumbersome and costly for businesses whose signage and advertising materials carried their old numbers.
Until the commission makes a final determination, phone companies are in a holding pattern, said David Spencer, director of marketing for Greenfield-based NineStar Connect, which provides phone service to 7,000 customers throughout central Indiana.
“Until we know which way they’re going to go, we’re not really sure how that’s going to affect our customers,” Spencer said. “It’s going to be something that we’re going to keep abreast of and keep our eye on.”
Carrie Boatwright, manager of The Cellular Connection Verizon Wireless retailer in Greenfield, isn’t looking forward to the changeover – especially if it’s anything like the last one she went through.
Boatwright helped cellphone customers navigate a similar transition about 10 years ago when she was working at a Verizon store in Fort Wayne, which at the time was switching from a 765 area code to 260.
At the time, technology was far less developed.
“We actually had to go into the phones and make it recognize the new phone number,” Boatwright said.
But technology has come a long way, and most updates are automatic.
“Hopefully, now, it’s going to be a lot easier,” she said.
The regulatory commission is providing the public multiple opportunities to speak out about the proposed changes before it makes its decisions. Five public hearings, including one in Greenfield, are planned throughout central Indiana between now and December.
Each hearing will start with a 30-minute information session. Spoken and written consumer comments will be accepted afterward.
The consumer counselor’s office, which represents consumer interests in cases before the regulatory commission, will file testimony in the case in early January.
An evidentiary hearing will follow in February, and the transition period is about 13 months after the commission makes a decision on which method to use, Swinger said.
“The question’s not when; … the question is how it gets introduced,” he said. “The changes are inevitable.”