Update Your Phone! You'll Have to Dial 2-1-0 for Local Calls

Now is the time to go into the 'contacts' page on your cell phone, and make sure all of the people you call locally have '2-1-0' in front of their numbers.

That's because News Radio 1200 WOAI reports what is called 'ten digit dialing' will become mandatory starting Saturday, as metro San Antonio prepares for the addition of the brand new 7-2-6 area code.

"The new area code is needed to handle regional growth combined with added demand for wireless phone numbers and business landlines," Terry Hadley of the Public Utility Commission of Texas said.

The reason you'll have to dial ten numbers is because the new area code will be what is called an 'overlay.'  Unlike previous area code additions, like when 2-1-0 and later 8-3-0 were added over the past quarter century, the 7-2-6 area code will not be geographically based.

The 7-2-6 area code will be added to new phone numbers distributed after next month.

That means the person who lives next door to you may have a different area code, and the equipment will need to know whether the number you're dialing is in the 2-1-0 or the 7-2-6 exchange.

The 'ten digit dialing' will not be a 'long distance call' and will not cost any more, whether it is made from cell phones or land lines.

Starting on Saturday, if you don't dial 2-1-0 before dialing local numbers, you'll hear a prompt instructing you to do so and the call will not be completed.


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