Alarm systems, private telephone systems, computers using modems, and telephones themselves may need to be reprogrammed to dial ten digits. Any system that automatically dials a local telephone number today may have to be reprogrammed. Clatsop and Tillamook counties will retain the 503 area code because they have not experienced enough growth to warrant new prefixes. In Commission visits to those counties, community leaders sought to retain seven-digit dialing for as long as possible. Local calling is confined to small communities and is not as widely dispersed as it is in the Metro area.
Many unused numbers are simply too expensive to recover.
In addition, existing numbers are being used up more quickly as a result of explosive growth in telecommunications such as the Internet, pagers cellular telephones and competition. There are many efforts underway to respond to the growing demand for phone numbers. One includes recovering numbers not being used in areas where wire centers serve small communities. The FCC recently changed the way numbers are handed out, so that no more than 1,000 are either handed out or activated at any one time. Oregon has received FCC authority and is moving ahead to implement individual conservation measures.