Eastern Nebraska running out of phone numbers much faster than expected

Despite a new area code introduced several years ago, eastern Nebraska is running out of phone numbers much faster than expected.

Cullen Robbins, the Public Service Commission’s telecommunications director, told commissioners at a meeting earlier this month that the 402/531 area code combination has “taken a significant, significant step” toward being exhausted.

The 531 area code was introduced in 2011 after it became apparent that the state was going to run out of numbers using the 402 area code, but it wasn’t actually put into use until several years later.

It was originally projected that adding the new area code would give eastern Nebraska enough numbers until 2050, but Robbins told the PSC that current projections show they could run out by 2038.

“That's a pretty significant jump in moving up that date for the projected exhaust,” he said.

The number of landline phone lines in Nebraska has dropped by more than half in the past 10 years, from just under 700,000 in 2014 to about 308,000 last year. That decline has been more than offset by the number of new cell phone lines, but PSC spokesman Jason McFarley said that growth alone is not enough to account for the unexpected rise in new phone numbers being generated.

“Anecdotally, the PSC is aware of out-of-state businesses buying local numbers in bulk for robocalls, sale of the numbers to third parties and other purposes,” McFarley said in an email. “Another trend the commission has seen is that smart devices of all types (not just phones but also tablets and even vehicles) are being assigned phone numbers, so that’s also depleting the number of available numbers to some degree.”

So what can be done to slow the depletion of numbers in the 402/531 area code?

Robbins said there are a number of potential solutions.

One would be to add another area code in eastern Nebraska. Another is to make all three area codes available statewide.

“One thing that's been done in a lot of other areas that I don't think we ever really considered before is merging everything into one,” Robbins said. “So it'd be combining the 308 and the 402/531 into one common area code for one common area and sort of blending the area codes together. That'd be an option, given that there's not as much demand in 308.”

While the 402/531 area code is being depleted faster than expected, the opposite is true for 308. Its depletion date is now projected to be 2054, five years later than earlier estimated.

While that sounds like a logical solution, it comes with its own pitfalls.

Several commissioners noted that people identify phone numbers, including the area codes, with their towns, schools and businesses.

Commissioner Kevin Stocker, whose district covers much of the area that currently uses the 308 area code, “strongly cautioned” against allowing the 308 area code to be used in eastern Nebraska.

“Hopefully that doesn't happen and disrupt the few people out in the 308 area, which is my area, because we're, we're kind of – we don't like change very well,” he said.