JOHNSTOWN — Experts believe the 814 area code is running out of phone numbers, which could causing big changes in the Cambria-Somerset region as soon as two years in the future.

Jennifer Kocher – spokeswoman for the Public Utility Commission, which will decide whether a new course is needed – explained how a shortage can come about, even with the population declining.

“More families are requesting more numbers,” she said Thursday from her Harrisburg office. “And just in general, homes, instead of having one landline, will have one and several cell phones.”

Also crowding the network are business fax lines and security systems that largely are tapped into phone connections.

The 814 code could run dry in 2012.

That happens when area codes deplete their supply of exchanges – the second set of three digits in a 10-digit phone number.

If that happens, the options left to the PUC are less than desirable:

• To split the 814 area in half geographically – with a new area code given to one section and 814 remaining in the other. For those lucky enough to land in the 814 half, no changes would be made.

• To go with an “overlay” system, in which any new numbers given after a certain date would be given another area code. Existing numbers would not be changed.

Pluses, minuses

Each option has benefits and drawbacks.

Halving the expansive district – which stretches to Erie – would keep half the homes and businesses operating as is.

Those half of the numbers would remain 814 and new numbers there also would be 814.

But, in the region that gets the new area code – whose numbers still haven’t been decided – existing phone numbers would get the new area code.

That would mean notifying friends and family, reordering office stationery and changing business signs.

In other words, some folks basically would be unaffected under this proposal. The other half would be greatly affected.

All the proposed splits ­– whether north/south or east/west – would keep Cambria, Somerset, Bedford and Blair counties in the same district.

Under an overlay, the 814 geography would remain, with new numbers within that area being given the new area code as they come on line.

The 814 area would be sprinkled with hundreds – eventually thousands – of individual residences and businesses holding the new area code within the larger 814 district.

Residents might find themselves dialing 10 digits when placing a local call, even to their next-door neighbors.

An 878 overlay code was instituted some years ago in the 412 and 724 areas.

Code change needed?

The state Office of Consumer Advocate has questioned the changeover.

In a statement to the PUC, the advocate’s office noted that earlier predictions that 814 would be exhausted by the first quarter of 2005 turned out to be unfounded.

“As it has done in the past, the commission should assure itself that area code relief is needed,” the advocate’s office said in an official statement during the summer.

“Such a determination requires examining whether the telephone numbers previously distributed have been used efficiently, and reclaiming those telephone numbers that have been found to be used inefficiently.”

The agency said just 42 percent of usable 814 numbers are currently assigned. By contrast, area codes in other states have topped 75 percent capacity.

Said the PUC’s Kocher, “I can’t comment on their arguments.”

But during the course of the interview, she said, “We’re in crisis mode.”

She said 814 averted a 2005 showdown through “number conservation.” Phone numbers were allowed to be allotted in 1,000-number blocks rather than 10,000.

“We’re just not sure that conservation like that can continue,” she said.

Preference voiced

If action is required, Consumer Advocate Irwin Popowsky favors an overlay.

“An area code overlay will provide the necessary numbering resources without unduly burdening consumers,” his attorney said in official papers.

Rep. Carl Metzgar, R-Berlin, agreed.

Speaking for the large costs that would be incurred by imposing a new area code on existing customers, Metzgar said in a release: “It would be a new expense that we just can’t afford in this economic environment.”

Kocher said number overlays would not occur until later than 2012, when all the 814 numbers have been assigned. Even then, she said, 814 numbers would continue to be given out as old numbers are taken out of service.

The 814 area code was one of the state’s four original area codes. The others were 717, 215 and 412.

Kocher said all have had adjustments since 1997 except 814.

Much farther down the road, the OCA said, once the number of usable area codes is depleted, “The entire North American numbering plan will have to be expanded, possibly to a 12-digit or 14-digit dialing protocol.”