Seven digit dialing has gone the way of the rotary phone in parts of Central Pennsylvania

“It’s had a good run, but realistically we’re getting down to the bottom of the barrel in terms of available phone numbers."

• Anne Danahy/WPSU
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Anne Danahy is a reporter at WPSU. She was a reporter for nearly 12 years at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania, where she earned a number of awards for her coverage of issues including the impact of natural gas development on communities.
  
  She earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and a master's degree in media studies from Penn State.
  
  Before joining WPSU, she worked as a writer and editor at Strategic Communications at Penn State and with the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute before that.
  
  She hosts a Q&A program for Centre County's government and education access station and teaches a news writing and reporting class at Penn State.

FILE PHOTO: In this Sept. 16, 2017, file photo, a teenager uses a smartphone.

(State College) — Callers in Pennsylvania’s 814-area code now need to dial 10 digits, not just seven, as the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission gets ready to add a second area code to the region.

Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission spokesman Nils Hagen-Frederiksen said 814 is one of the original Pennsylvania area codes established in 1947. It’s the only region that hasn’t already gotten another area code added to it, and it stretches from Johnstown to State College to Erie.

“It’s had a good run, but realistically we’re getting down to the bottom of the barrel in terms of available phone numbers,” Hagen-Frederiksen said.

Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission

A flier from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission reminding those in the 814 area that they’ll need to start using the area code on April 3, 2021.

Apparently, all those newfangled devices — cell phones, tablets, wifi hotspots — are eating up phone numbers.

Rather than splitting the region into two separate areas, the PUC is adding an “overlay” area code. When all the 814 numbers are gone, new lines will get 582 as their area code. That could happen as early as May 1.

Hagen-Frederiksen said they’re urging residents and businesses to make sure devices — including security systems and medical alerts — are programmed to include area codes.

The change will not affect 911 calls.

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