June 14, 2011: A (non-functioning) wonder of the ancient world in Winthrop. Awfully public for a changing room, don’t you think, Clark?
Another part of a simpler technological life is going away in two large swaths of Iowa.
According to the Des Moines Register, everyone in the 319 and 515 area codes will have to engage in 10-digit dialing for every number by October. (Actually, it might be 11, because of pressing 1 to dial out?) The creation of the national Suicide Prevention Hotline is pre-empting the 988 prefix used in two places: Hudson and a block of Des Moines cell numbers.
Of course, no one dials anymore. Few even mash physical buttons anymore. Storing everyone’s name on your phone eliminates the possibility of being one digit off and having a nice five-minute conversation with a wrong number — the number of a person you also happen to know.
This change will affect Traer’s half of Tama County and much of eastern and southeast Iowa for 319, and then Des Moines and many points north for 515. Toledo will still be able to call Gladbrook in seven digits, because they’re 641.
I’m in favor of area code splits instead of overlays, and Iowa has avoided them, but anyone in a place that got one has been doing 10-digit dialing. The 319 and the 515 are just being added involuntarily.
But might it have been easier to give everyone in Hudson a new prefix?