By CRAIG FREILICH

In about a year, people in the 315 telephone area who want to make a local call, even if it’s just across the street, will have to dial all 10 digits of the number including the area code.

And if people want to start practicing dialing the longer numbers, residents can start next month.

But until the new system takes effect in February 2017, anyone in the 315 area, which includes almost all of St. Lawrence County and stretches down to the Finger Lakes, Syracuse, Utica and the region just west of Albany, can continue to call anyone else in the area with just a seven-digit number.

What is now the 315 area will soon have a second area code, 680, covering the same territory, and people will have to adapt to it by Feb. 11, 2017.

All of St. Lawrence County is in the 315 area, except for a small part in the southeast of the county that is in the 518 area. The 518 portion of the county will not be affected by the changes.

The state Public Service Commission has been planning for this change for years. It was becoming apparent to the North American Numbering Plan Administrator that the unique seven-digit numbers assigned to households, businesses, cell phones, fax machines and other devices were running out, and the only way to accommodate more was to devise a new area code plan for the region.

The planning was put on hold after the first warnings, in part because of the economic slowdown that began in 2007-08, which suppressed demand for new numbers.

In the meantime there was a debate over which method would be used to accomplish the goal of increasing the amount of numbers available to people in the region.

One way to do it was to divide the 315 area in two, leaving one area with the 315 code and assigning a new area code to the other half. That would leave one part of the region essentially unchanged, while the other part would have the chore of reconfiguring systems, ordering new letterhead, and informing everyone they know of the new numbers. But that would allow people to continue using just a seven-digit number to reach phones in their areas, either the new smaller 315 area, or in the new other area, but not between the two.

Another way was to assign a new area code to the same geographic region, “overlaying” the 315 with the new 680 area code.

One benefit of that is that all existing numbers would remain the same, and only new numbers would be issued with the 680 area code.

The downside to that would be imposing on all callers in the entire 315/680 area the need to dial the whole 10-digit number, including area code, to dial any other phone in the region.

After a comment period, the PSC decided last July on the latter course of overlaying the 315 area with the second area code, 680. Most people will still have their existing 315 phone numbers, but new number assignments could have the 680 area code.

In its order from last July, the Public Service Commission said that there was no “consensus consumer preference regarding a particular geographic split option,” any of which “would result in ‘winners” and “losers.’ Only an overlay permits all existing telephone users in the region to keep their entire current phone numbers, including the 315 area code. An overlay treats consumers in the region more fairly and equitably. By comparison, a geographic split would necessarily impose virtually all of the burdens of area code relief on residential, business, and institutional telephone users in the zone receiving the new area code. At the same time, the users in the zone that retains the existing 315 code would bear essentially none of the burdens of area code relief.”

A period of what was called “start of network preparation and customer education” for telephone companies began last August.

This month, telephone customers have begun receiving information about the changes with their phone bills.

On March 12 this year, an 11-month phase-in period begins, during which people can start using the new 10-digit numbers, or they can keep using the seven-digit numbers for anyone in what is now the 315 area, as before.

But on Feb. 11, 2017, the phase-in period ends. After that, anyone trying to use just a seven-digit number to reach anyone in the region will hear a message telling them to hang up and use the whole 10-digit number.

Other things will not change. To call anyone in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean outside of the 315/680 area, callers will have to dial a “1” first, as they do now.

The price of a call, your calling plan, coverage area, and other rates and services won’t change. All calls billed as local calls now will remain local, regardless of the number of digits entered.

Your local area and regional message rate areas will remain the same. Whatever you pay for a call to Watertown or Syracuse, for instance – still part of the 315 area and soon to become part of the 680 area also -- will remain the same, at least as long as your current service plan remains the same.

And calls to the three-digit services, such as 911 for emergencies and 411 for information, will not change.

The Nicholville Telephone Company and its sister company Slic Network Solutions have some suggestions for what people should do before the change is in full effect:

“In addition to changing your dialing procedures, all services, automatic dialing equipment, or other types of equipment that are programmed to dial a 7-digit number will need to be reprogrammed to use the new dialing procedure. Some examples are life safety systems or medical devices, PBXs, fax machines, Internet dial-up numbers, alarm and security systems or gates, speed dialers, mobile phone contact lists, call forwarding settings, voicemail services, and similar functions, etc.

“Be sure to check your website, business stationery, advertising materials, personal and business checks, contact information, and your personal or pet ID tags to ensure the area code is included.”

That and other information is at http://www.slic.com/pdfs/OverlayCustomerEducation_NTC.pdf.