BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Niagara County Sheriff's Office is reminding Western New Yorkers that starting Sunday, you may have to change how you dial phone numbers.
The reason for the required 10-digit dialing is the planned addition of a three-digit number, 988, that can be called from anywhere in the country to reach the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.
Any area code that uses the 988 hotline is required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt 10-digit dialing.
To complete all calls, even local ones in Western New York you'll have to dial the appropriate area code, and then the phone number. If your saved cellphone contacts only have 7 digits, they will also have to be changed.
The 716 area code happens to be one of the 85 area codes across the country to be impacted.
The deadline for this to occur is officially Sunday, but some carriers are already implementing it.
And it's not just phones.
Medical monitoring devices, PBXs, fax machines, and fire or burglar alarm and security systems are among other types of equipment that, if currently programmed to complete calls to a 7-digit local number, will need to be reprogrammed to complete calls to 10-digit numbers instead.
According to T-Mobile’s advisory (and advisories from other carriers)
- Your telephone number, including current area code, will not change.
- The price of a call, coverage area, or other rates and services will not change due to the dialing change.
- What is a local call now will remain a local call regardless of the number of digits dialed.
- You will continue to dial 1+ area code + telephone number for all long distance calls.
- You can still dial just three digits to reach 711 (relay services) and 911 (emergency services).
- Any 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, or 811 services available in your community can still be reached by dialing their three-digit codes.
- The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can still be reached by dialing 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
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