Yet.

But come Jan. 10, 2001 10-digit dialing will be mandatory if you want your calls to go through.

BellSouth spokesman Clifton Metcalf, said the reason you’re going to have to dial all those extra numbers is that we’ve used up the available prefix numbers for the 704 area. (The prefix numbers are the three immediately following the area code.) So the administrator for the North Atlantic Numbering Plan has assigned a second area code to this area. If your area code now is 704, it won’t change. But several weeks after January 10, if you get a new number, your area code will be 980. This means you might have a 704 number while the new neighbors next door have a 980 number. Or you might have a 704 number on your home phone and be assigned a 980 number when you decide to install a fax machine.

And that’s why you’ll have to dial the area code, even for local calls, to sort out which calls are 704 and which ones are 980. The same is true of calls outside 704 that you have been able dial without using the area code. For a long distance call, you will just have to dial a 1 or zero before the area code, the same as you do now.

The changes will affect customers of all telephone companies, not just BellSouth.

The new area code and 10-digit dialing will not cause any change in the 800 series toll-free calling — 800, 877, 888. Special service three-digit numbers such as 911 for emergencies and 411 for informaton will not change. But BellSouth’s MemoryCall voice mail service and MemoryCall mailbox numbers will be 10 digits.

Metcalf said the communications industry decided adding a second area code number as an overlay in some areas, including this one, would be simpler and less frustrating to customers than continuing to split into smaller and smaller areas, each with different area codes.

BellSouth customers should tell the people with whom they communicate about the change and also change all their own stored numbers in such services as call forwarding, speed calling, call selector and call blocks to the 10-digit dialing.

Business customers will need to reprogram equipment including fax machines, modems, Internet connections, PBX systems and telephone equipment with automatic dialing features.

BellSouth will update directories to reflect the changes.

The company wants people to start the new dialing habits now, before it is necessary for completing a call, so that by the time the new system is operating, dialing all 10 digits in a number will be second nature for customers.