South Jersey exchanges in the new 856 area code
609 Giving Birth To 856
New area code for parts of county begins on June 12

Lauren Wolkoff
BCT Staff Writer

That's the advice come next Saturday for Bell Atlantic's residential and business customers in southern New Jersey.

Beginning June 12, Bell Atlantic-New Jersey customers in Burlington, Atlantic, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem will be asked to retrain their dialing fingers to punch in the new 856 area code instead of or in addition to the familiar 609.

The change affects not only phones, but fax machines, cell phones, pagers, computer modems and Internet access lines.

The change, announced in March by Bell Atlantic and approved by the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU), will affect all residents and businesses in the Burlington County municipalities of Cinnaminson, Delanco, Delran, Evesham, Maple Shade, Moorestown, Mount Laurel, Palmyra, Riverside and Riverton.

In Medford, just the southwestern portion of the township will become 856, as will a handful of homes and businesses in Willingboro just over the Bridgeboro Bridge on Route 130. In these split towns, residents will be able to place calls within their own municipal borders without using the new codes for two years.

There will be no additional charge for a call between 609 and 856 numbers.

For the next five months, all calls into 856 numbers will be completed whether or not the new area code is dialed. The transition period, however, will end on Nov. 12.

"There will be a permissive dialing period until November. That's like a practice run, when you won't get the recording that tells you to check your area code and dial again,'' said Bell Atlantic spokesperson Soraya Rodriguez.

"(Starting Nov. 13), the call won't go through, and you'll hear a recording that will give you instructions on what area code to dial,'' she said.

Rodriguez said that Bell Atlantic plans to launch an educational campaign this week to guide customers through the potentially rocky transition. Further details also will be released to inform customers about when they have to use an area code and when they can just dial seven digits.

The need for a new area code is directly tied to the increase in the number of cellular phones, pagers, fax machines and lines dedicated to Internet access. Officials expect to run out of available 609 numbers by the end of this year.

The state decided to split the code along geographic lines _ making some exchanges 856 and keeping others 609 depending on their location _ rather than creating an overlay which would assign 856 to newly-activated lines.

BPU officials determined that an overlay might cause one house to have two different area codes and would be too disruptive for customers.

In Medford, roughly 2,000 phone numbers in the southwest area of the township will be converted to the new area code. This represents about 14 percent of all the township's numbers, according to Township Manager Alan Feit.

The new area code will apply to numbers with the following exchanges: 810, 983, 985, 596, 797, 235 and 988. The bulk of the numbers are located in the Centennial Lakes section of the township, which lies near the border of Evesham Township west of Jackson Road.

In Willingboro, only about 20 houses and businesses on Lake Drive and Route 130 between the Bridgeboro Bridge and Olympia Lakes will use the new area code, according to Township Manager Norton Bonaparte.

County businesses affected by the change are exhibiting a mixed response.

Representatives from several county office supply stores that do customized stationary products and business cards said they had not yet seen an increase in orders reflecting the area code change.

"This will probably affect our printers more than us, but I have seen no change yet. Nobody has mentioned it,'' said Rick Simpson, general manager of Pick Quick-Paper Superstore in Mount Laurel.

But at Burlington County Eye Physicians in Moorestown, the office began preparing for the change several weeks ago by ordering new stationary, appointment cards and business cards.

"We have also had to call all our accounts and make sure they have the proper numbers. Many of the companies we deal with are out of state and wouldn't know there's a change,'' said Cyndi Lamon, an ophthalmic assistant at the office.

The change was not too disruptive for the office, according to Lamon.

"It's just another thing we have to worry about, but it's not that big of a deal,'' she said.

Jack Fenimore, who owns two businesses in Riverside, couldn't disagree more. He said he will not make any changes to reflect the new number until he absolutely has to.

"I think it stinks. (Is Bell Atlantic) going to reimburse us for all the money we have to put out to change everything? I haven't even wanted to talk about it because I know how upset I'll get and the effect it'll have on my businesses,'' said Fenimore, owner of JE Enterprises Real Estate Management Co. and Jack's Racing Collectibles in Riverside.

"I really think there should be a class action suit filed (on behalf of) every business person affected by this,'' he said.

BCT staff writer Josh Bernstein contributed to this report.

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LOCAL EXCHANGE SOURCE: Bell Atlantic
Web site: http: www.bellatlantic.com

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