Idaho will need a second area code by 2018

BOISE - Idaho is outgrowing its 208 area code and will need a second one by mid-2018, so the state Public Utilities Commission is asking Idahoans whether they want to be divided geographically between two area codes or just mix the new code in statewide. Either option has big downsides, from having to change half the folks’ area codes to having to dial 10 digits on every in-state call. And that’s not to mention the loss of something Idahoans long have identified with - the state’s only area code, which it’s had since 1947, now also denotes a popular Idaho-brewed ale, a line of handmade skis and more. Idaho’s telecommunications providers already have weighed in – they’re unanimously recommending the geographic overlay, under which all existing numbers would keep their 208 area code, and just new numbers would be assigned the new code. Everyone would have to dial 10-digit numbers for every in-state call, though. “Any change is going to be inconvenient, there’s no question,” said Gene Fadness, spokesman for the Idaho PUC. “What we’re trying to do is pick the least inconvenient way.” In recent years, Idahoans have used the “208” tag not only as the state’s only area code, but as an identifier for Idaho businesses, products and attitudes. Grand Teton Brewing, based in Victor, Idaho, makes a popular 208 Session Ale with the slogan, “Born & Raised in Idaho.” Substance Skis, an independent ski manufacturer in Coeur d’Alene, makes “The 208,” a $750 bamboo and carbon-fiber all-mountain ski billed as “the ultimate weapon for groomed and soft snow conditions.” 208Rocks.com in Pocatello offers Idaho T-shirts with an array of slogans and images. Fadness said, “There hasn’t been a geographic split done in at least 10 years anywhere in the country, mainly because of the onset of programmable cellular phones as well as landline phones. It’s just been found to be much easier to get people to adjust to 10-digit dialing than to ask half the state to change their phone numbers, to change their business cards, and to change their advertising.” Plus, if the state went with the geographic split, “It just invites acrimony to decide which half of the state has to change their phone numbers,” Fadness said. With a geographic split, people in each zone could still dial just the seven-digit number to reach others in the same zone, while they’d only need to dial 10 digits to call into the other zone. But half of them would have the new area code. The Idaho PUC is taking public comment on the change through Oct. 6; to comment, go to www.puc.idaho.gov or mail comments to PUC, P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0074. Idaho’s telecommunications providers, both large and small, have filed an application asking the PUC to start a 16-month implementation period for an overlay approach to a second area code, with no cost to consumers; it’d be ready by mid-2018. Fadness said he can still remember growing up in rural Montana when his community had to switch from four-digit dialing to seven-digit. Idaho made that switch decades ago. “It seemed like a big change,” Fadness said, “but we adjusted and went on.” Idaho is among 12 states left with a single area code, and second area codes are being proposed in half those states. Staff writer Becky Kramer contributed to this report.