By Kurt Hildebrand Nevada News Group
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
All local phone calls across the country now require the use of the area code. In Northern Nevada that means even local callers will have to press 775 before the phone number.
The change is required by the implementation of the 988 phone number to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. On July 16, 2020, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules to establish 988 as the new, nationwide, 3-digit phone number for Americans in crisis to connect with suicide prevention and mental health crisis counselors.
Besides having to enter the area code, phone numbers will remain the same, as will the cost of a local call. The change affects much of the country, not just here in the Silver State.
Callers must also update stored telephone numbers for services such as call forwarding, call screening, and call blocking to include the area code and telephone number.
Local calls also won’t require someone to press 1 before entering the phone number.
The national network has run out of numbers that end in 11, like 911, 511 or 611.
The Federal Communications Commission determined that repurposing one of those numbers would require time as thousands of people continued to use them for their previous purpose.
The 988 number isn’t used as a geographic area code in the United States and has fewer corresponding central office code assignments than other codes that were considered.
Cell phones already require the use of the three-digit area code, so most of the impact from the change will be for residents who still have land lines.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, fewer than 40 percent of adults in the United States live in households with a land line.
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