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BOSTON -- All phone calls, even local ones, will require 11-digit dialing under an amended Nynex plan to add two new area codes in eastern Massachusetts, according to a published report.
The 617 and 508 area codes are running out of available phone numbers and Nynex has proposed that two new area codes be added, in 1998 and 1999. But Nynex wants to keep the existing boundaries and lay new codes on top of the old ones -- 781 in 617 and 978 in 508.
Under Federal Communications Commission rules, any geographic overlays approved by state regulators will require 10-digit numbers for every call, the Boston Herald reported yesterday.
Competitors had complained that the previous plan was unfair. They said Nynex would have had a competitive advantage because its customers would have had all the choice 617 and 508 numbers, which would deter them from switching companies.
AT&T and other competitors had been especially miffed because Nynex wanted to retain seven-digit dialing for local calls within area codes, the Herald reported. Competitors, whose customers would have had to dial 1 and then 10 digits for local calls, worried about the competitive advantage of that scenario for Nynex.
Earlier this week, AT&T and the New England Cable Television Association asked the state Department of Public Utilities to reject the overlay plan, on the grounds that the seven-digit local calling violated FCC rules.
But Nynex was planning to amend the filing anyway, said spokesman Jack Hoey. The newspaper reported Nynex will amend its plan by the end of the week.
Mr. Hoey also said that FCC rules require that, by 1998, customers be allowed to have full number portability; in other words, customers switching carriers will be able to keep their old phone numbers.
"Number portability totally throws out any anti-competitive argument," he told the Herald.
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