How many South Jersey customers would need to change their current area codes with an overlay?
Not one. An overlay allows customers to keep their current area codes and numbers. Will either method of area-code relief affect plans for local competition? Not at all. Customers who take their business to a local-service provider other than Bell Atlantic will not have their telephone numbers changed. This feature of local competition, known as number portability, is mandated by the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1995. Why can’t New Jersey do a geographic split without dividing towns? Because telephone circuits frequently cross municipal lines and cannot be reconstructed at anything approaching a reasonable cost. The circuits are situated that way for two reasons: The first is that New Jersey’s telephone system evolved with population, not town boundaries in mind. That is, circuits were constructed near population centers, and those centers did not necessarily correspond to town boundaries. The second is that many circuits, while now constructed of modern equipment, originally were
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- How many South Jersey customers would need to change their current area codes with an overlay?
