The Nebraska Public Service Commission announced today (Wednesday
08-July-2009) that the 402 area code in eastern Nebraska will be
OVERLAID with the new 531 area code.

531 was a code that I had "guessed" at, ever since the October 1998
master list of ALL future area code reservations (intended at that time)
was inadvertently posted by NANPPA on their website for about 48 hour.
This "master list" of all future reservations is NOT something carved
in stone -- such reservations of specific future area codes has changed
since, but not everything reserved 10+ years ago has necessarily
changed. At the time, NANPA was reserving both 531 and 621 for future
relief of eastern Nebraska's 402, two codes probably in case of a
possible 3-way split of 402. Since Oct.1998, the 402-621 c.o.code has
been assigned, but the 402-531 c.o.code has continued to be flagged as
NOT to be assignable.

There is a pdf press release dated today at the NE-PSC's website:
http://www.psc.state.ne.us/home/NPSC/news_releases/news_releases_pdf/090708_Area\
_Code_402_Relief_Plan.pdf

It is also mentioned that rural western Nebraska's 308 area code might
also adopt ten-digit local dialing so that dialing of local calls will
be consistent throughout the state, especially for customers in 308
who are close to the 50+ year old 402/308 area code boundary. The
press release mentions implementing "permissive" ten-digit local
dialing within 308 as a possibility, but I do wonder if many landline
providers ALREADY allow such permissive ten-digit dialing dialing within
the 308 area code? And maybe more likely, MANDATORY ten-digit dialing
could be implemented within 308. However, 308 is NOT in any danger of
exhaust for quite some time! Note that such (mandatory) landline
10-digit dialing within 308 is NOT required under the recent NE-PSC
order, only that 402 will have mandatory ten-digit local dialing since
it is to be overlaid.

There will probably be TWO test-numbers for the new 531 overlay area
code -- one for Qwest/US-West/NW-Bell in the Omaha NE LATA #644 in the
central and northern parts of 402 eastern Nebraska, and another for
Windstream/Alltel/Aliant/Lincoln-Tel-and-Tel in the Lincoln NE LATA #958
in the southern parts of 402 eastern Nebraska. Actual 531-NXXes and
line-numbers for the test numbers, as well as switch-CLLIs/ratecenters
are still to be determined.

The actual implementation dates for a 402/531 overlay and permissive/
mandatory ten-digit intra-402 local dialing have NOT yet been determined
by the telcos/NANPA/etc. nor by the NE-PSC, but the current projection
for exhaust of 402 is for 2Q/2011. Also, I had seen a Qwest/NW-Bell
PROPOSAL submitted a couple of months ago to the NE-PSC as to specific
dates which could be used for implementing ten-digit dialing and for
the earliest activation date new 531-NXX "POTS" c.o.codes.

The Qwest/NW-Bell RECOMMENDED/PROPOSED dates are:

Permissive 10-digit Local Intra-402 Dialing:
Saturday 26-June-2010

Mandatory 10-digit local Intra-402 Dialing:
Saturday 26-February-2011

First (pre-assigned) "POTS" 531-NXX c.o.codes Active:
Saturday 26-March-2011

Whether or not this Qwest/NW-Bell proposal will be adopted is still not
known, but it does have 531 being active with potential new 531-NXX
"POTS" c.o.codes by the end of March 2011, BEFORE the current proejcted
exhaust in 2Q of 2011 for 402.

There are already news/press/media reports on today's announcement by
the NE-PSC for the overlay. I'm already coming up with results doing
google "news" searches, but I haven't yet read any of them. I've only
read through the official NE-PSC announcements of today, so far.

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina