And out comes my soap box. My apologies in advance.
I understand that seven digit dialing is the exception and not the norm, but again, I am revisiting my position on this subject as a whole. The entire country has to make sweeping and multi-million dollar changes in order to accommodate one segment of society. I'm not downplaying suicide prevention at all, so please don't take this the wrong way.
Yes, it's true that with the proliferation of overlays, CLECS and of course cell phones, ten digits is pretty much the norm in most of the US. Still, there was a better way to go about this. Rather than reinventing the wheel, how about stepping back and modifying what we already had? Let's face it, there are several X11 codes that are being wasted. It's as if they've been given a purpose just to justify their existence. Case in point: 211 and 311, which are loosely-organized into being community or city-based non-emergency contact codes. Seriously? Calling city hall is so difficult that we need an X11 code for it? In my area of NC, the 311 code is used for ANAC on 5ESS offices and 211+ is for ring back testing! If you're looking for animal control, you look up the number of call the city's main number. Every city has one. I'm sure of it.
What about 411? Come on, be honest here. Back in the 80s when the LECs started charging insane rates per call for directory assistance, it didn't take long for the general public to get off their asses and find the number themselves. Besides, with the proliferation of cell-only households, the white pages are all but gone. Even people with land lines are fools to actually have a number that is listed.
511? Oh come on... This code is used for traffic information in many major metropolitan areas. Are people going to call this number from their home or office land lines? Of course not. They're going to dial it from their cell phone, while driving, to find out why traffic is backed up at the tunnel. This service could have been easily provided using star/pound codes instead since all calls are likely to be coming from cell phones. Just like #77 for State police or *HP for Highway patrol, they could have rolled out something like *JAM nationwide for traffic reporting instead of wasting a valuable X11 code.
611? Do you really dial this for phone company repair service anymore? Chances are, your cell or land line provider's support service is a toll-free number that rings a call center in Jakarta. Yet another code that had gone unused for years and could easily have been repurposed.
711 for TDD/TTY is fine. That's a legitimate need that should be simplified. Still, most of these calls aren't manually-dialed. The device usually does the dialing to establish the connection, so why does it need to be a simplified code when a nationwide toll-free number can be arranged to direct callers to regional translation centers?
811 for underground utility locating? Come on, that's not an emergency. Even when you do call them, you still have to give them 48 hours to respond. Again, a national toll-free number, like 800-DIG-SAFE could be configured to route calls to local call centers to reach the appropriate member utilities.
With this said, the only REAL X11 code that serves emergencies in north America is 911 and should never, ever be changed.
988 is just plain stupid. I can hear it now, with some guy standing on the ledge trying to remember if it's 988, 989, 889, 998, etc. No, he's not going to keep dialing codes until he reaches someone. If he's serious, he's just going to jump.
99% of all key systems, PBXs and central offices are fully-equipped to process X11 calls with minimal effort. Instead of sticking with what we already have, our telcos, manufacturers, vendors and customers are being forced to spend these millions of dollars, again to address a very small segment of society. I'm not opposed to making money to perform these modifications, but I don't think it's fair to force every mom and pop business to get the shake-down with no say in the matter.
NANP changes? Of course these are necessary to accommodate growth in the overall dialing network. I don't think that anyone will argue that those changes are a necessary evil. Even still, the mad rush to provide area code overlays and splits has subsided now that numbers are no longer issued in blocks of 10,000. We now have split and overlaid codes that probably wouldn't have been necessary had this flexibility, along with number portability, been available 25 years ago.
What's next? 239 for Planned Parenthood? 738 for the nearest Home Depot? 295 if your mom yells at you? NO! We cannot continue to let our society become more and more dumbed-down. Within no time, we'll be out of three-digit codes and our numbering plan will start to look like that of England.
I have what I think is a much better idea: Take about one tenth of the overall cost of this debacle and spend it on modifying our existing e911 systems where the appropriate call routing capabilities and personnel can be in place to make our #1 emergency contact number serve one additional purpose. Just walk down any street and ask anyone what 911 does. I'll bet you'll get 100% correct answers. Why fix what's not broken when a simple modification would have been a much more appropriate solution?
