Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
The experts should get on their horses and agree to a plan soon, for the very fact of how many things will have to be changed. The sooner they do this, the less hastle it will be once the switchover becomes necessary.
Same reason why the majority of computer NICs produced today are capable of supporting IPv6 even though we have not yet exhausted the limits of IPv4. When the switchover becomes necessary, most pieces of hardware will already support it (save for poor grandma who still uses her P-75MHz Windows 95 machine to play bridge with her girlfriends on the internet), so the costs to the consumer, and even the providers for new hardware will be limited.
Personally, I'm surprised they even would consider releasing 912 as a home code, even if it seems necessary. They stopped assigning 912 numbers to Airdrie a few years ago because the number of misdials to 911 went way up. They now assign 945, which they probably could have done in the first place had they thought about it.
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I vehemently agree: because the switch to 12-digit dialing will require a seriously major effort on the part of EVERYBODY even tangentially related to telephony, the more lead time we get, the better off we'll all be.
As for 912, this *WAS* correct for a while: they stopped assigning such numbers and also stopped re-assigning them after they'd gone out of service, for the reasons you specified (and opened up the 945 office code to take up the slack). This practice has stopped, for two reasons:
1) The 403 area code is now in what's called a "Jeopardy" situation. Alex Trebek is not involved, but it does mean that extraordinary measures are taken to reduce the demand for new central office codes. This means that, until the Jeopardy is lifted, no new central office codes will be assigned to Telus in Airdrie unless deemed absolutely essential - and this overrides the concern about 911 misdials, so 912 numbers are again being assigned in Airdrie.
Under Jeopardy you'll also see a much shorter period for reassignment of numbers. Normally, if a residential number goes out of service, it is held out of service for six months before becoming available for reassignment. Under Jeopardy, this shortens to two months. And so on.
The Jeopardy is scheduled to be lifted in August, which is a point in time 60 days prior to the availability of 587 number assignments, which can start in October.
2) With the imminent advent of 10-digit dialing in Airdrie and the rest of Alberta, the "misdial" scenario simply disappears. While it's true today that you might misdial a 912 number as 911 (simply by accidentally double-striking the "1" while dialing), this is no longer the case under 10-digit dialing, whereby you'd begin the call by dialing 4-0-3-9-1-2, which cannot be confused with a 911 call, which wouldn't have the leading "403" prepended. You'll also likely see "914" and "915" get assigned (in order to use up the remaining pool of 403 office codes) before you'll see any numbers in area code 587 appear in southern Alberta.
Telus currently has three office codes in Airdrie: 912, 945, and 948. However, there are competing telcos operating out there, so you can also find local numbers starting with 316 (Rogers), 420 (Bell West), 960 and 980 (Shaw).