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Show Utah Area Code Deadline E xtended As a result of an Order issued February 18, 1998, by the Public Service Commission of Utah (PSC), Utah phone users now have six months longer to get ready for the new "435" area code. The Order extends a phase-in period pe-riod already under way during which callers have the option of using either the existing 801 area code or the new 435 area code when placing calls to Utah locations outside the Wasatch Front and Morgan county areas. Mar. 22 was the original date callers would have been required to use the new 435 area code exclusively. exclu-sively. The Commission's Order now pushes the "mandatory dialing date" out six months to Sept. 20, 1998. The extension was made in response re-sponse to a long distance company's com-pany's request for more time to get ready for the new area code. The PSC was able to grant the request (See AREA CODE On Page 3-A) V Area Code From Front Page because, according to industry information, in-formation, there are still enough unused telephone number prefixes within the existing 801 area code to meet the anticipated demand through September. In addition, the extension allows all phone users us-ers more time to prepare for the new 435 area code. The new area code is needed because be-cause Utah is running out of prefixes pre-fixes in the 801 area code. Dramatic Dra-matic growth in the state and demand de-mand for new telephone numbers for such services as fax machines, pagers, cellular telephones, second telephone lines, voice mail and computer modems are causing the shortage. In September of last year, Utah's 801 area code split into two area codes: 435 and 801. Since then, callers have been able to use either the new 435 area code or the old 801 area code to complete calls to the 435 area. With few exceptions, customers in a five-county area, including Weber, Morgan, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties, are keeping the 801 area code. The remainder of the state is changing to the new 435 area code in order to make more prefixes available. |