By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome

Gov. Chris Sununu appeared in “information ads” touting The 603 and you see many people post in FaceBook about returning to the  603 from distant places.

You could almost believe The 603 was akin to The Old Man of the Mountain, the New Hampshire Presidential Primary  or “Live Free or Die,” instead of an area code for making telephone calls.

More similar to The Old Man, The 603 will someday be but one of the area codes when people call into New Hampshire either on a landline or a cell phone or IPad or computer or voice-over-internet protocols, etc.

Despite the numerous devices, or because of the numerous devices, The 603 is running out of numeric combinations for the remaining seven numbers for phones or whatever is assigned a number.

Ideally, there are 7.7 million seven digit numbers that could be available for use, far more than the 1.4 million residents of the state.

But it is much more complicated than simple numbers. Blocks of numbers are reserved by various providers and many businesses, organizations and government entities have far more than just one number to call.

The providers are reluctant to surrender the numbers they can assign to customers as you can imagine and how many people have more than one phone.

When I worked for a newspaper, I had two company cell phones, my own, a company pager, and my landlines at home and at work. That meant people had six phone numbers by which they could reach me.

If everyone had that many numbers attached, The 603 would be only one of the state’s two area codes with 8.4 million numbers.

New Hampshire is one of a little more than a dozen states that have had the one area code since its inception in 1947. Most other one-code states are facing similar issues.

The exhaustion of numbers accelerated with the explosion of cellphones and voiceover internet protocols and the state has already tried to blunt the impact beginning in 2000 and then again in 2013.

Maine faced a similar problem and would hit its limit by 2025 but the Pine Tree State’s legislature acted to preserve its single area code.

Last fall, the state announced it would extend The 207 until 2032 to 2034, according to the North American Number Plan Administrator.

“Our staff has looked at several practices that have impacted the rate at which our numbers were being tied up, including forecasting and block request practices, curbing the use of numbering resources by robocalls, and encouraging providers to work collaboratively,” said Maine Public Utility Commission Chair Phillip Barlett said. “We believe that our continued efforts to ensure numbers are used in the most efficient manner possible could extend the life of Maine’s single area code out until the 2050s.”

In New Hampshire, the area code is not expected to max out for three or four years, so the governor and Legislature have both jumped into the fray to save The 603.

Last fall, Sununu issued an executive order titled “Don’t Overload the Code” that stated “the 603 Area Code is an iconic symbol of New Hampshire, has come to both signify and symbolize residents and businesses being located in or originating from New Hampshire, and has become part of the New Hampshire identity, and the implementation of a second area code is likely to have significant cultural and economic consequences for residents and businesses located in-state.”
The order required the Department of Energy to open a proceeding to investigate strategies including reclaiming unused numbers from providers, to extend the single area code as long as possible.

He also implemented a study of business practices related to its use of telephone numbers and the potential cost and significance of a second area code for the state.

This year’s legislature has Senate Bill 603 — get it —sponsored by Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, and introduced at the request of the governor, which would give the Department of  Energy and the Public Utilities Commission authority to promote and adopt telephone number conservation measures to maximize the life of the state’s single area code.

Speaking in favor of his bill, Bradley spoke of The 603 being part of the state’s brand and identity, and any change would impact that brand in a negative way by diluting its impact.

The Senate amended the bill to include many of the measures done by Maine to extend the lifetime of The 207.

During the public hearing, the PUC expressed concern that some conservation measures could impact rural areas negatively but not the resource-draining areas of Manchester, Portsmouth, Concord, Nashua and Keene.

The committee was also told any new area code would be an overlay, which means if you have a 603 area code, you will retain it, but any new telephone number will have a new area code. 

At the hearing, Chris Rand of the NH Telephone Association, stressed that rural carriers historically have not been a significant source of numbering problems due to their limited number blocks and they need to be protected under the proposed changes.

The bill would allow the Department of Energy to hire a consultant who would cost between $100,000 and $300,000.

The Senate passed SB 603 on a voice vote, surprising it was not a 24-0 roll call, and was sent to the House on March 21 and was sent to the House Science, Technology and Energy Committee for a public hearing and review.

The House committee kept the bill largely intact, but added a reduction in the state’s Communications tax from 7 to 6.5 percent without any indication how much impact that would have.

The bill may be headed to the House Ways and Means Committee to determine the fiscal impact of the reduction in the tax that has produced diminishing returns as people move from landlines to cell phones and other devices.

Thursday SB 603 comes before the House with an ought-to-pass-with-amendment recommendation from the House Science, Technology and Energy Committee, but with a minority report recommending killing the bill.

The vote to recommend passing the bill was 10-9, so it is likely to garner some debate on the House floor.

The minority report is written by Rep. and former Dartmouth computer science professor, Tom Cormen, D-Lebanon, who notes the bill has two problems, no known fiscal impact from the reduction in the Communications Tax and it is simply putting off the inevitable.

“Whether or not we attempt to extend the life of the 603 area code, we will run out of phone numbers in the 603 area code sometime in the next few years,” Cormen writes in the minority report. “The bottom line is that this bill spends money just to kick the can down the road.”

When the Old Man fell and turned into dust, the state was shocked, in disbelief, and truly lost a symbol of its heritage dating back to at least Daniel Webster who said “Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men.”

No one’s manhood or womanhood disappeared when the Old Man fell off the face of Cannon Mountain, and it should not when The 603 eventually is joined by a little brother or sister.

Did the state’s brand just begin in 1947, or was The Granite State known for its majestic mountains, crystal clear lakes, Presidential Primary, maple sugar, fall foliage, skiing, Live Free or Die, business friendly atmosphere, no income or sales tax and making “real men” before The 603 was established?

Maybe the legislature ought to be more concerned about hungry kids, homelessness, and the growing tyranny of the minority in this state and country, rather than if The 603 is the state’s only area code.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.