Public Service Commission puts 315 area code changes on hold

The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) announced on Thursday, Nov. 14 it is putting on hold plans to create an additional area code in the 315 area-code region, which covers 18 counties of Central and Northern New York.

The commission said in a news release that the decision was based on a revised forecast from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), the agency responsible for administering area codes.

The commission initially considered options for making additional telephone numbers available in the 315 area code region in 2007 after projections suggested that the area would run out of available telephone numbers. However, updates by NANPA indicated the area code would not exhaust its available numbers as quickly as initially predicted, the release said.

In April of this year, NANPA projected an “exhaust date” in the first quarter of 2015, and based on that prediction the PSC restarted its efforts to add an area code and started accepting public input, according to the release. An updated report from NANPA now projects the 315 area code’s exhaust date to occur in the third quarter of 2016, the PSC release said.

With more time to work with, the PSC says it makes sense to put the effort on hold again.

“Due to the potential disruption that could be created when a new area code is added, it is prudent to temporarily postpone this proceeding given that extra time now exists before a decision must be made,” Audrey Zibelman, PSC chair, said in the release. “However, as a result of all of the comments and suggestions we have received during the past months, we should be able to re-start the proceeding quickly should the need arise,” she said.

The 315 area code stretches east to west from Little Falls to the Rochester suburbs, and stretches south to north from Tully to Massena.