Drunk Dialers Be Forewarned: Your Hobby Just Got Three Digits Harder as Ten-Digit Dialing Becomes Required in the 707 Tomorrow
Beginning tomorrow, Sunday, October 24 23, 2021, residents with the 707 area code will officially be required to engage in what is referred to as 10-digit-dialing. This means, no longer can a holder of a 707 phone number simply dial the simplified seven-digit number. These changes dictated by the Federal Communications Commission require that all phone calls made, even to other 707 numbers, will require dialing the area code first and then the phone number.
Please note, technically the change also requires a 1 in front of the area code (i.e. +1-707-XXX-XXXX). Most smartphones automatically add the 1 in front of the area code. But, some phones may not and will require the user to type in the 1 and the area code.
This change is rooted in a July 2020 FCC rule aimed at enhancing access to mental health crisis resources. The rule established 988 as a new shortcut phone user could use to access the National Suicide Hotline.
The change to ten-digit dialing is necessary because 988 is often used as a “central office exchange code” by area codes that utilize seven-digit calling. To ensure maximum access to phone users, all area codes that were utilizing the seven-digit calling model had to adopt ten-digit dialing.
As per the California Public Utilities Commission, the 707 area code serves an incredibly wide swath of Northern California including “portions of Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama and Trinity Counties.”
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So technically it got 4 digits harder and it’s actually eleven-digit dialing?
Nobody wins here…
Harder? Don’t hurt yourself and practice safe phone.
This. I’m so old that I can remember just using 4 numbers to dial local…well that and party lines. But there are a gajillion more phones numbers and a lot more people. Things change. Adapt! If this old woman can do it, so can they.
I just remembered, a friend in Eureka was a telephone operator in the mid-70s. Do those even exist anymore?
Hello how may I assist you? Press one to continue or 2 if you wish to speak to a human. One moment while we put you on hold as all our operators are busy at this time. Your wait time is….30 minutes
So somehow all of us pushing extra digits all day long on every single call we make is going to help with mental health?! Only the well-paid parasites in government could do us this “favor”!…btw- there are still pretty much zero real mental health resources available around here. But at least we can all push lots of extra buttons so people in crisis can call a special number to be informed there are no services?
👍
How will it affect my cell phone?
Verizon says you will need to go into your contacts and change any number you didn’t save with 707
So, if the phone company does not make the change, does that mean I have to delete each seven digit number and re-enter the ten digit number? Is there away to automatically update all numbers?
On my I-Phone anyway hit edit click on just before number add 707 done. Let’s Go I-Phone
On my flip phone (smart, because I have to think for myself), go to contact, edit, add 1-707- in front of the number. Done.
Go flip phone.
So…you’re saying NO? You have to do this to every single number independently, right? I don’t know about you but I have A LOT of local numbers. This is a serious time-waster
Yep! You have to remember this is the government we are talking about and they are here to help.
If you didn’t have the area code already it wouldn’t show up on the caller id. I don’t remember the last time I actually dialed a number
It’s just an edit, not that hard.
I will need to reprogram all of the local phone numbers in my cell phone.
The Trininty I’m familiar with uses 530.
Do some Trinitayans have 707?
Mad River, Ruth, Zenia
That’s right, forget about Ruth/Zenia sometimes.
Thanks
Brilliant question Brian, very intelligent, I couldn’t have said it better myself
There weren’t any other 3-digit numbers that they could use for the hotline? …though I noticed that my smart phone updated any 707 numbers for me. My land line of course didn’t…
They could have used 000. But that’s Australia’s emergency number so you might get connected to somebody there
Uh today’s the 23rd did they today or tomorrow the 24
Thank you. Fixed.
Thanks, Matt LaFever. Go Dodgers!
Go Golden State Warriors. Curry put up 45 points the other night.
Is that a reference to Ron Lefevre,
Dodgers 2nd base back in the Pleisticine?
Not all change is good.
My phone has required this for a long time. I thought it was carrier specific.
Ditto.
I have “lifeline” phone service for my landline. I can’t call past Weott (north) or Garberville(south). And everything on my cell phone requires area codes.
Lifeline used to actually be cheap, but not any more. There are so many taxes. It is not easy to be old & poor in America.
you can call #’s outside the areas you mention with your LifeLine but you have to specify what long distance service plan you want, and those usually cost a bundle. I never use my landline outside of GBV, Whitethorn Shelter cove area because anything beyond that is considered long distance so I use my cell phone for all other calls.
I used to pay $12/mo, now it’s $21/mo for the lifeline.
I have AT&T with LifeLine. My last bill was $8.60. My LifeLine and carrier credit is $17.00. I use Tracfone pay as you go for my cell, which is about $7 a month. You can use any unlocked phone with Tracfone or they sell cheap ones.
How’s your coverage on a good phone with trac phone? Last time I had one I couldn’t get any bars in so many places.
I live along the coast never had a problem. The carrier used by Tracfone is Verizon for my IPhone 6s.
If you live in the hills might be a different matter.
They also use T-Mobil and Sprint and ATT as carriers.Not sure how they decide what sim card to send you.
My IPhone is 5″x 2 1/4″. Pocket size. Your right bigger phones are like carting a tablet around
If you have a flip phone for a cell phone with very little bandwidth you can get a much cheaper plan. Plus, you can get a used flip online for about 1/3rd of the price Verizon would charge. I have one that you can drop in 6 ft of water, drop 30 ft to a cement floor and run it over with a tank, literally, and it’ll still work. Plus it fits in my pocket. Much more practical. Love it.
whoever put this plan together needs to get their mental health checked. This must be a ploy on the part of the wireless industry to eliminate all remaining landline phones. Lets cover the entire earth in emf radiation, then we’ll feel great !
Improve access to mental health by driving everyone crazy.
The FCC has done a few really stupid things lately.
This summer they decided if you had Lifeline and didn’t have your internet service through the same provider your phone cmpany provider had to take away $2.00 of your discount. In ther words charge you $2.00 more per month.
I have tried for several months, through Frontier and the FCC, to get some real answers why this should apply to people whose phone company doesn’t provide internet to their area should have this rule apply to them.
I won’t go into details about how convoluted the FCC website is to lodge a complaint, contact real person or get a response.
Needless to say 4 months in and I’m still working on it.
I’m going to guess that the people making these policies and adding fees make pretty good salaries with benefits and don’t really care about you. While they feed at the public trough paid for by taxpayers who also have no say. It’s almost like this governmental (federal, stae and county) shitshow is accelerating and we have no choice?
Come on folks, this is really a great example of a first world problem LOL
This is bullshit. I’m sure they could have figured out a different way, like changing the area codes for regions that use 998.
I agree!
Thank you for this article. The rock under which I live had kept me from hearing about this until now.
This sucks and there must be a better solution to the problem.
So now someone suicidal or with a mental crisis has to dial more numbers to get help? Yeah, that will make things better..
Ummm. No
I have seen this done before, years ago in So Ca, and the excuse then was they were adding ‘area code overlay’ in which, instead of splitting an area code zone. Yes. There must be better solutions! I can only guess they do this to accommodate businesses. And yes. It sucks!!
Your comment is non sensical.
So far I will say the same about yours.
Please qualify your comment.
This is ficking dumb
I tried making a few calls without the 1-700, wouldn’t go thru
I just tried calling my and my wife’s cel phones from our land-line at 1:10pm without 1-707 and it DID go through. We’re in Eureka. On area at a time I guess.
Same thing from my Verizon carried trakphone flip phone, no 1-707 to my wife’s flip cel and our AT&T carried landline and it worked.
Tell ya who I really feel sorry for: the folks still on aol and dial-up (yes, they do exist). It’ll take FOREVER for them to log on now.
Bigger question, for those of us who didn’t hear about it here, how would we/they know? Because, I have heard absolutely nothing from AT&T, Verizon, trakphone. Not even friends with other carriers. Thanks Corporate Man. And an honest THANK YOU to Kym, once again, for keeping us in the loop.
You’re right-although KMUD also ran it. I tried a local number today and a recording came on saying you have to dial 1 & area code.
Re: the photo at the top-Surely you are not insinuating that the little tot is drunk? He always acts that way.