512 area code envy? Austin’s new 737 area code in effect

[TexasTowelie]

Austin’s second area code, 737, goes into effect today. The 737 addition has already created a sense of “area code envy.”

Established Austinites will keep their original 512 numbers. Most newcomers will more than likely get a 737 area code. The inventory of 512 phone numbers is set to run out in 2014. The Public Utility Commission says that Austin shouldn’t need another area code until 2047.

512 is now a symbol of where you sit in Central Texas’ social strata. Are you a local or a transplant? The 737 types will be easy to spot.

What longtime Austinite would want a phone number with an area code that reads like the model of a passenger jet anyway?



Source: http://digitaltexan.net/2013/austin-local-news/austin-512-737-area-code/article55160/

[font color=green]Then they say size doesn't matter?[/font]

[Travis_0004]

1. This was covered on a Seinfeld episode.

[Ilsa]

2. So why didn't they include Bell

in place of Lampasa Co? And Milam is split in half. It'll be like the rivalry between Lake Woebegone and Mullett.

[TexasTowelie]

3. This is actually an overlay over the previous 512 area code.

No geographic areas were split in the process.

The other counties not in the shaded area were already split from the original 512 area code years ago. Be legislative design, the phone companies were told to keep the 512 area code assigned to the Austin area so that government offices would not have to bear the expense of reprinting stationery or business cards as a result of being assigned new area codes.

At one time, the 512 area code used to stretch from the northern areas shown in the diagram down through San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo and the cities in the Rio Grande valley.

[Ilsa]

4. I knew 512 used to run all of the way south,

Just as 713 used to include all of the cities and towns around Houston.

Texas has grown.

[WolverineDG]

5. They'll just have to putter along like the rest of us former-512 ers

Poor babies. No one cared when South Texas became 210, then 956, or when Corpus went from 512 (as late as 1998, I had just moved there & was surprised to get a 512 number) to 361. They'll live.

[TexasTowelie]

6. Written with the words of a privileged 512er!

You obviously don't realize the levels of class distinction being inflicted on those people that lack one of the long-time Texas area codes. If you didn't have a 214, 512, 713, or 915 area code then you aren't Jack--well after a time we let the 806ers and 817ers slide into our midst. However, if your middle digit isn't a zero or a one then you are obviously a furriner or a Yankee and you need to get your @$$ out of my state!

BTW, my cell phone is a 214!