Reader comments
385 area code = 10-digit dialing

I've talked to several senior citizens who are completely flummoxed by this. How can they say it will not be confusing to change the way we've made calls for decades? Dial 10 numbers to call next door? We are used to area codes splitting, but not overlays. Bad call.

I totally agree with Kristen. Who's bright idea was this?

An overlay sounds definitely better than asking people who have had the same telephone number for decades to suddenly switch to a new area code and phone number. Switching numbers would be awful for all of those people outside of Salt Lake County.

Also, with cell phones these days, people have area codes that are not necessarily 801, so we are using 10 digits anyway.

This overlay plan just seems idiotic. People have been asked to change their numbers for decades with the influx of more and more people in areas. They changed from 801 to 435 and survived. People in other states do it more frequently than us. I think that this state is just a bunch of whiners that need to get with the times and get over themselves and move on with the rest of the world. People will keep moving into this state and things will continue to get more and more crowded and things like this will have to change. Today it is the area code, tomorrow who knows.

Dialing a 10 digit phone number is just plane stupid. The only time we should have to use the area code is when we are caling long distance not the person next door. I don't know who's bright idea this was but I think they need to go back to school.

Somebody else needs just 'plane' needs to go back to school as well. ;-)

Expansion requires people to adjust, but quit your whining Utah. You can pick up a phone, push a few buttons, and talk to someone miles away without ever leaving your house, or without ever being connected to a land line for all us cell phone users, and you are all complaining that you have to push 3 extra buttons? Has technology seriously affected us in a way that we feel entitlement to a perceived convenience that makes us complain over the most minor change? I mean seriously... 3 buttons. Would you like that half-second of your life back?

Lets be grateful this will be a smooth transition instead of an complete remapping of the entire phone grid to provide for growth.

From the article: "The commission noted that several other states have found overlays "easy to implement, and customers have been very satisfied." I seriously question this statement! I have a Ph.D. and after reading this article, I still do not have a clue how to dial a number; perhaps it is the "absent minded professor" situation. I am sure I can read other news and instructions to figure it out, but like a previous comment I can imagine lots of elderly citizens trying to understand this overlay. This morning I tried to call two business on my cell phone. One in Morgan and one in Layton. I did get through, but it took me several attempts to complete the call. Verizon just gave me an error message several times when I used my pre-programmed numbers.

Did your Ph.D. teach you to save your progammed numbers with the area codes in front of them? Common Sense taught me that.