Cell phones bring new prefixes to town
Friday, September 7, 2007
Q I’ve seen some odd telephone prefix numbers lately, and it’s difficult to tell if they are local. What prefixes are in use now in Emporia?
A Emporia’s numbering system has come a long way since it left the four-digit numbering system behind and added the original DI-2 prefix.
Numbers currently in use here, and the telephone companies that use them, are:
• 340, 341, 342, 343, 412, 803, Southwestern Bell
• 344, 366, United States Cellular Corp.-Kansas
• 481, Sprint Spectrum L.P.-Ks.
• 487, AT&T Local
• 591, Nextel Communications, Inc.
• 757, Aerial Communications
• 794, Alltel Kansas LP-Ks.
Because telephone numbers have portability from company to company within defined areas, customers might not actually be using the phone company originally assigned to the prefix numbers.
Other prefixes that have been assigned to Emporia and might be coming into use are: 412, assigned to both Alltel and Level 3 Comm-Ks; 487, Nextel and 803, Aerial.
The information was provided through Neustar, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator for the Federal Communications Commission.
A spokesman for Neustar said that, because of technological advances, his company now can apportion numbers in blocks of 1,000 instead of 10,000 blocks. That option is especially helpful when meting out numbers in smaller, rural areas that may need only a few hundred numbers to serve customers. That saves 9,000-plus numbers for other, more populated areas.
“The analogy is, somebody wants to make a sandwich, they need two slices of bread,” the spokesman said. “We don’t have to give them the whole loaf any more.”
More information about prefix codes currently in use in other Kansas cities are available on the Internet at http://www.nanpa.com/nas/public/assigned_code_query_step1.do?method=selectNpas
Upcoming prefixes can be found at https://www.nationalpooling.com/pas/control/reportselectpoolstep1.