SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Earlier this month, many people got a text from cell phone providers like Verizon saying "Starting on October 24th, you must dial the area code for all calls. This change supports 988 as the new 3-digit code to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline."
The message raise some questions, so ABC10 set out to verify.
THE QUESTION
Is 10-digit dialing now required for all calls?
THE SOURCES
- Ben Avey, Chief Public Affairs Officer for WellSpace Health
- Brock Erdman, Director of Operations for Cal Tel
- The FCC
THE ANSWER
Yes, as of Sunday, 10-digit dialing is now required for all calls, including local calls.
According to Verizon, wireless customers may now dial either 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and landline customers must continue to use the 11-digit lifeline number until July 16, 2022.
WHAT WE FOUND
"They're making a major change to the national telephone system, that takes work, that takes time, but July 2022, anywhere in the United States, if you dial 988, you will be connected to a crisis counselor in short order," Ben Avey, the Chief Public Affairs Officer for WellSpace Health, said.
WellSpace Health is the primary call center answering the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline calls for California.
Right now, they say, a person in crisis has to dial 11 digits to get through on the lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK.
"You may not necessarily remember an 800 number, and so the ability for somebody in crisis who is suicidal to dial 988 very simply is vital to saving lives," Avey said.
According to the FCC, 82 area codes in 35 states currently use the number 988 to start local calls and still allow seven digit dialing.
Five of those area codes are in northern California:
- 209
- 530
- 650
- 707
- 925
"If you have one of these area codes, beginning on October 24, 2021, you must dial ten digits (area code + telephone number) for all local calls. On and after this date, local calls dialed with only seven digits may not connect," a statement on the FCC's website said.
Local phone provider Cal Tel, based in Calaveras County says, along with all other major phone providers, they had to make quite a few internal changes ahead of last Sunday.
"The reason why that was important for the 209 area code, is because 988 is actually a local call to Modesto, and so anybody that's dialing a seven digit call, 988, that call would go to Modesto, not the National Suicide Hotline," Brock Erdman, Director of Operations for Cal Tel, said.
"We also had to make a lot of change to our network, to disallow seven digit dialing and force the 10 digits and also we had to make sure they were getting our messaging and then we had to do a lot of testing," he added
Over the last 12 months, WellSpace Health has taken more than 65,000 suicide and crisis calls. It's a statistic they now expect to triple when 988 goes live in July.
"It's that simple, you hear it, you know it, you don't forget it," Avey said.
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