THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702020105
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: 30 lines
So far, so good.
That was the report Saturday from southeastern Virginia's two local phone companies about the change to area code 757.
After a seven-month grace period in which long-distance callers could dial either the old 804 code or the new 757 to reach Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore, 757 became mandatory Saturday.
``Everything's proceeding smoothly,'' said Paul Miller, a Bell Atlantic spokesman.
Miller said Bell Atlantic technicians spent Saturday reprogramming switches in the company's 63 central offices affected by the area-code change. It takes about five hours of coding changes and keyboard strokes on a computer to complete each switch's changeover, he said.
GTE spokeswoman Lacy Yeatts said Saturday that her company also was experiencing no difficulties reprogramming switches at its 32 central offices affected by the change.
A random check with hotels from Smithfield to Virginia Beach turned up no problems receiving long-distance calls.
Both Bell Atlantic and GTE have a recording telling long-distance callers who dial 804 by mistake to hang up and try again using 757.
Central Virginia, including Richmond, Charlottesville, Danville and Lynchburg, will continue using 804.