Oct. 24, it will become mandatory for all callers in the Alaska 907 area code to manually dial the area code when making a local call.
The change was initiated by the Federal Communications Commission as part of a plan to designate 988 as the abbreviated dialing code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The FCC has ordered that any area code that uses the 988 prefix for regular telephone numbers, and that uses seven-digit local dialing, transition to 10-digit local dialing to prevent interfering with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline using the abbreviated code 988.
The change will not require callers in the 907 area code to change their phone numbers, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska announced. However, all services and automatic dialing equipment programmed to complete local calls using seven-digit numbers will have to be reprogrammed to use 10-digit numbers.
The RCA recommends that callers begin dialing 10-digit numbers for all local calls beginning April 24. The change will become mandatory Oct. 24, the RCA announced.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can currently be reached by calling 1-800-273-8255.
