Chicago gets a new area code starting Nov. 7

Get ready to dial a new area code for friends or family living in Chicago. The Illinois Commerce Commission on Monday said the city will add 872 as an area code for landline, mobile phones and other devices starting Nov. 7.

People living in the 312 and 773 area codes will have 90-days to adjust their dialing habits, but after Nov. 7, they'll have to dial 1 plus area code plus the telephone number, said ICC spokesman Brian Sterling.

"There just aren't enough numbers left," Sterling said.

Those living the Northwest suburbs area already used to overlays and don't need to worry about any additional numbers for a while. Customers living in area code 847 already have 224 as an overlay. They likely won't see another overlay number until 2022.

Those living in DuPage County with 630 and overlay 331, along with Will County's 815 and overlay 779 won't see another overlay number for their regions until 2035, according to projections by ICC engineering analyst George Light.

However, those in the South suburbs could be next.

"Area code 464 has been reserved to supplement 708," said Sterling. "However, 708's current exhaust date isn't until the second quarter of 2013, and that date is pushed further out every year."

The Citizens Utility Board, a Chicago-based consumer watchdog group, said Monday that the new overlay number in Chicago was "unnecessary and wasteful," said spokesman Jim Chilsen.

"CUB doesn't believe there's a shortage of numbers," said Chilsen. "But CUB suspects that the phone companies may not be following the conservation rules as well as they should."

NeuStar Inc., under contract by the Federal Communications Commission to administer the nation's telephone numbering, originally filed a petition in 1998 on behalf of the Illinois telecommunications industry with the ICC seeking a new area code for 312 and 773. The group had forecast that both area codes would exhaust their supply of available prefixes in 2001. But conservation efforts by service providers and the ICC helped to delay some of those newer numbers coming into effect, Sterling said.

With an overlay, an additional area code is added to the same geographic area as the existing area code, with all current phone customers keeping their original area code. New telephone customers for local phone service, cellular and paging services and alarms in the same area may receive telephone numbers in the new overlay area code, Sterling explained.