Starting today, residents living in the 318 area code will have to dial 318, plus the seven other numbers when making a call to an existing 318 phone number. It’s because a new 457 area code will begin next September. Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell says the ten-digit number is necessary to distinguish between the two area codes.
“People will get used to it, but it is inconvenient. There’s nothing we can do about it because we have too many people in 318, so they had to change it. You dial 318 and the number now,” Campbell said.
Starting on September 25th, newly assigned phone numbers in north and central Louisiana will have a 457 area code. Campbell says to prepare for this new area code, people with a 318 area code will need to dial all ten numbers when calling another phone with a 318 area code.
“It’s going to be a pain in the seat, a little bit, but we’ll have to get used to it, because that’s what we got to deal with,” Campbell said.
Campbell says the new area code is necessary because they ran out of seven-digit numbers for the 318 area code.
“We had to have a new one because they have too many people on 318,” Campbell noted.
