Metro Detroit is running out of 313 phone numbers

It was only a matter of time before 313 ran out...

"Metro Detroit is likely to run out of 313 phone numbers to assign in 2025.State regulators on Thursday set a public hearing for March 9 to take comment on a proposal to add the 679 area code for new phone customers in the 313 area code.

"The 313 area code is synonymous with Detroit and also encompasses Hamtramck, Highland Park, Allen Park, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, the Grosse Pointes, Inkster, Lincoln Park, Redford Township, River Rouge and Taylor.

"Existing 313 customers would not be affected. The 313 area code is projected to be used up in the third quarter of 2025, with few to no new numbers available aside from those returned and reassigned through standard industry practice.

"The North American Numbering Plan Administrator, which administers phone number plans, in November filed a petition with the Michigan Public Service Service to implement the 679 overlay. The state agency has authority to approve or reject area code changes in Michigan."
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/techno...-phone-numbers

Area code splits are the way to go... the overlay route sucks. :p

The Macomb [and points northward] first split off of 313 into 810, and later 810 split into 810 & 586. Oakland County [and points north/west] first split into 810, then split into 248 and then 947 became an "overlay" area code for 248... meaning everyone in the 248/947 area has to dial the area code for all calls even if you are in 248 and calling another 248 number.

Then in 2021 4 additional area codes in Michigan started the 10 number dialing...

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...be%20completed.

Currently 313, 586 and 734 don't require more than 7 digits when dialing within the area code. But with 313 getting an "overlay" instead of an actual split... all 313 calls, as well as the new area code for Detroit and nearby, will have to dial 10 digits for ALL calls, just like 248 calls do.

586 and 734 area codes will remain with 7 digit dialing within the area code.

Gistok ~ former Ameritech employee... who was involved with NPA Splits [NPA is for National Planning Area... or Area Code]... in metro Detroit and Chicago. :)

Does Gistok remember when 0 and 1 were ONLY used in NPAs and NEVER in NXXs?

It's ironic that there's so much concern about declining population yet we're running out of phone numbers.

I'm surprised we're still using phone numbers at all. When a programmer references a variable in memory he doesn't use the numeric address of the variable. He uses a more meaningful symbol like "velocity" and the computer takes care of translating that to its numeric address. It just has to be unique, not numeric.

There's no reason phone numbers couldn't be replaced by something like email addresses other than "That's the way the old machines have always done it."

Metro-Detroit without its 313 area code, it will be really low. 313 is out sacred number and our city's lucky number.

Did you work at Ameritech on Big Beaver and Livernois or downtown?

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Originally Posted by Gistok

Gistok ~ former Ameritech employee... who was involved with NPA Splits [NPA is for National Planning Area... or Area Code]... in metro Detroit and Chicago. :)

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Originally Posted by Gistok

Currently 313, 586 and 734 don't require more than 7 digits when dialing within the area code.

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I remember being able to dial just the last 5 digits when calling locally. It seems that lasted into the early 80's, but perhaps it was just the small community in which I lived.

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Originally Posted by Danny

Metro-Detroit without its 313 area code, it will be really low. 313 is out sacred number and our city's lucky number.

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313 is not going away.

Drake tried to copy Eminem in his raps and called Toronto the 416. He took a lot of flack so shortened it to the 6. I see "Toronto vs. everybody" t-shirts around here also. You'd think they could come up with something original.

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Originally Posted by Meddle

Does Gistok remember when 0 and 1 were ONLY used in NPAs and NEVER in NXXs?

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Oh yes I do... and the low number NPAs such as 212, 213, 312, 313 were the prestigious ones!

Now my phone number NXX starts with 806.

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Originally Posted by jcole

Did you work at Ameritech on Big Beaver and Livernois or downtown?

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No... the Big Beaver folks were the former Yellow Pages folks [they became Ameritech Publishing]. After the AT&T split in 1983, I first worked at Ameritech Services IT group [Bingham Center in Bingham Farms] where we supported the common IT systems of the 5 Bell companies [Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin]. Then later when all of Ameritech's individual IT systems were standardized and workers were merged, we became Ameritech Applied Technologies. Most of those were former Michigan Bell IT folks who continued to work at Southfield's Northwest Office Center at Northwestern & Southfield campus. I left just before the SBC buyout of Ameritech, and my group moved to the Southfield campus on Northwestern Hwy.

I remember the Ameritech chairman Richard Notebart got a $40 million golden parachute after the company was sold in 1998. Ameritech's HQ at the time were in Hoffman Estates, a suburb of Chicago. Then it got moved to San Antonio, when it became SBC.

Then SBC bought out 4 of the 7 regional Bells... and they also bought out AT&T, and the corporate name switched from SBC to AT&T. And in 2008 they moved their HQ from San Antonio to Dallas... but interestingly enough they continued to use the San Antonio Area Code for the Dallas HQ complex.

They have annual picnics for the old Michigan Bell/Ameritech Services/Ameritech Applied Technologies IT employees. :)

I worked in the Ameritech building for a few years in the 2000s. Also, my Son in laws mom was Ma Bell/Ameritech into the late 90's. Cynthia McClure

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Originally Posted by Gistok

No... the Big Beaver folks were the former Yellow Pages folks [they became Ameritech Publishing]. After the AT&T split in 1983, I first worked at Ameritech Services IT group [Bingham Center in Bingham Farms] where we supported the common IT systems of the 5 Bell companies [Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin]. Then later when all of Ameritech's individual IT systems were standardized and workers were merged, we became Ameritech Applied Technologies. Most of those were former Michigan Bell IT folks who continued to work at Southfield's Northwest Office Center at Northwestern & Southfield campus. I left just before the SBC buyout of Ameritech, and my group moved to the Southfield campus on Northwestern Hwy.

I remember the Ameritech chairman Richard Notebart got a $40 million golden parachute after the company was sold in 1998. Ameritech's HQ at the time were in Hoffman Estates, a suburb of Chicago. Then it got moved to San Antonio, when it became SBC.

Then SBC bought out 4 of the 7 regional Bells... and they also bought out AT&T, and the corporate name switched from SBC to AT&T. And in 2008 they moved their HQ from San Antonio to Dallas... but interestingly enough they continued to use the San Antonio Area Code for the Dallas HQ complex.

They have annual picnics for the old Michigan Bell/Ameritech Services/Ameritech Applied Technologies IT employees. :)

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I'm indifferent as to overlay/splits. I've grown accustomed to ALWAYS putting in the area code. And most of the time when I'm calling someone I'm not even entering a phone number, I'm just selecting a contact by name and hitting the call button.

The first splits came with the internet when everyone suddenly needed a second line for their dial-up modems. That was followed by the cell phone explosion. I got split off 313 twice and ended up in 586.

I find this new split surprising as dial up modems became history and most people have abandoned their land line phones, greatly decreasing new number demand. 313 has a lot of cachet for the reasons cited above and maybe now that just about absolutely everybody, including kids, carry phones the demand for numbers is back up.

Yes, but back then, the vast majority of households had one phone number for the whole family and usually only one phone.

Now, it's common for every member of a family to have at least one phone number. A family of five people might have six or seven numbers.

A small company that might have had three or four numbers now might have thirty or forty if they supply cells to their staff.

The number of copper fed landlines is down, but the total number of phones is way up.


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Back in the old 0/1 days, we used to use that to determine fraudulent numbers. If someone tried to use a phone number like 604-3399, we knew
right off it was a fake. Same with numbers like 424-665-8877. Had to be fake.

When the change started, that whole simple safety net went away.

Been going on for years. I remember the witch from 6 to 7 digits in Detroit. We went from PRospect 3324 to LAkeview 7-3324 on the east side.

In old black&white movies it wasn't unusual to see someone initiating contact with the phone operator by rapidly paddling the switch hook saying "Operator? Operator?"

Years later I learned that that's essentially what happened when you dialed zero. The dial was designed to break and make the switch hook circuit once to dial "1," twice to dial "2," etc. all the way up to ten times to dial "0."

Why they didn't just dial "0" is beyond me. It would seem easier.

Then before the dial, you'd turn a crank to signal the operator who would connect the call for you.

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Originally Posted by Jimaz

In old black&white movies it wasn't unusual to see someone initiating contact with the phone operator by rapidly paddling the switch hook saying "Operator? Operator?"

Years later I learned that that's essentially what happened when you dialed zero. The dial was designed to break and make the switch hook circuit once to dial "1," twice to dial "2," etc. all the way up to ten times to dial "0."

Why they didn't just dial "0" is beyond me. It would seem easier.

Then before the dial, you'd turn a crank to signal the operator who would connect the call for you.

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Back in primary school a field trip to the Bell Homestead was mandatory:
https://www.brantford.ca/en/things-t...homestead.aspx

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Originally Posted by Meddle

Yes, but back then, the vast majority of households had one phone number for the whole family and usually only one phone.

Now, it's common for every member of a family to have at least one phone number. A family of five people might have six or seven numbers.

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Great point.

Growing in the 90's my family of four only had a single telephone number, even when dial-up became a thing we still stuck to one line.

Now my family of four has quite a few numbers. My middle school child has a cell phone. My elementary school child has a phone with a Google Voice number but no cell service [[that phone stays at the house at all times).

I've got a work and personal number. My wife has a personal cell number [[Google Voice), a work cell number, and a work desk phone number.

So in the 90's we had one number for four people.
In the 2020's we have seven numbers for four people.

I do wonder if/when cell phone numbers will become irrelevant. They've gone from things we knew by heart to numbers we're no longer familiar with. I don't even know my kids' telephone numbers because I programmed them into my phone once and now I never see the numbers anymore.

One thing to keep in mind about telephone numbers available for other carriers is that numbers are usually given out to other communications companies [mostly mobile] 10,000 at a time [0000-9999]. So any empty unused numbers in that 10,000 range are not available to be released to other carriers. And if a communications carrier has used up their numbers, they get an additional 10,000 numbers to start issuing out to customers. So by doing it this way, there may be large blocks of phone numbers that are allocated to carriers, but not to customers.

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Originally Posted by Gistok

One thing to keep in mind about telephone numbers available for other carriers is that numbers are usually given out to other communications companies [mostly mobile] 10,000 at a time [0000-9999]. So any empty unused numbers in that 10,000 range are not available to be released to other carriers. And if a communications carrier has used up their numbers, they get an additional 10,000 numbers to start issuing out to customers. So by doing it this way, there may be large blocks of phone numbers that are allocated to carriers, but not to customers.

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We were lucky enough to get to choose cell numbers for the whole family that end with my last 4 digits. Over time when my wife and sons got phones we made sure that we would at least try to get the same digits issued, and on top of that, within the 514 area code, Montreal’s principal code.

When Ameritech opened the 234 exchange, I got a block of 1,000 DIDs for a project I was working on. They still use them, but I don't if they ever used all 1,000 or not, or handed any back.