Agency halts plans to split 618 area code in Illinois

CHICAGO -- The Illinois Commerce Commission has shelved plans to split the 618 area code after federal regulators ordered changes to how telephone numbers in the area are distributed.

Regulators have ordered "pooling" of telephone numbers in Southern Illinois beginning July 29. Pooling is when telephone companies are required to give back to NeuStar, the company that oversees telephone numbers in the United States, the numbers they don't use so they can be redistributed to other telephone companies.

Also, new phone numbers would be given to phone companies in blocks of 1,000, instead of in blocks of 10,000.

That move will free up thousands of phone numbers and delay the need for a new area code in southern Illinois by several years, commission spokesman David Farrell said.

"We have been trying to do anything we could to find any unused prefixes to extend the life of 618," Farrell said.

Commission statistics indicate only about 27 percent of the numbers in the 618 area code actually are being used.

Bud Green, chief telecommunications engineer for the commission, warned that the reprieve from an area code split won't last forever.