George Light, Engineering Analyst for the Illinois Commerce Commission, says this change will affect everyone in the U.S. by next July.
"The FCC effectively mandated it from last October, but because this effects every switch in every town across the country where there is seven digit dialing, they realized it was going to be a sort of rolling implementation. So, some people might already be dialing ten digits, some people may still be dialing seven digits."
Light expects ten digit dialing to be required in the 309 area code, which includes nine Illinois counties, sometime between now and July, but no date has been set yet.
A somewhat related change will take place late next year or early in 2023, when the 309 region of Illinois will get an additional area code, 861. He says that's because the 309 region will run out of numbers using that area code that was originally created in 1957.
