WKU prefix wrong answer

Published 12:00 am Monday, September 25, 2006

Western Kentucky University was close to getting a new prefix for campus numbers to deal with its shortage of the 745 and 936 prefixes.

But a setback in its plan to use the 958 prefix has changed the way WKU and BellSouth will go about establishing a new prefix for the university.

Kentucky’s Public Service Commission recently overruled the North American Numbering Plan Administration’s denial of the request for a new 958 prefix to be used on campus, according to commission spokesman Andrew Melnykovych.

Not long after the ruling, BellSouth discovered there was another reason why the 958 prefix couldn’t be released and is now waiting for the official ruling from NANPA.

In each geographic area code, the 958 and 959 prefixes are specifically identified as a test code used by local telephone companies to test networks.

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&#8220Every attempt has been made not to assign that prefix for regular telephone numbers,” said John Manning, director of NANPA.

WKU is poised to deal with NANPA’s second denial of the request, since the 958 prefix is a restricted number used for testing purposes, according to Edwin Craft, director of telecommunications for Western Kentucky University.

Earlier this month, Craft said his department was in a waiting game with BellSouth regarding the number.

Craft said since the commission overturned the ruling, BellSouth had to refile with NANPA to get the new prefix.

&#8220745 and 936 have been already exhausted. There are no more available (numbers) that we can pull in,” Craft said. &#8220We have some available numbers out of the blocks that we already have from (BellSouth) until we get a new block.”

Craft’s stance then was that since the 958 prefix had been issued in other cities, the same should happen for WKU.

There are 12 area codes where 958 has been assigned in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, Craft said.

As of this morning, Craft had yet to hear from BellSouth or the NANPA.

BellSouth spokesman Dave Weller said they didn’t have all the information up front when they approached the NANPA with the request in July and that the company didn’t realize until its reappeal there was a second reason for the NANPA’s denial of the 958 request.

Before, BellSouth thought NANPA’s ruling was based on the concentration and saturation of the numbers, Weller said.

Since the 958 prefix is a testing number used nationwide by phone companies, it would be difficult to have all the companies agree to switching to a new number, he added.

Now, BellSouth is looking to explore other possibilities with WKU, like simply using another number, Weller said.

&#8220We want Western to get the prefix number they want,” Weller said. &#8220We’ve been going to bat for them all along, but we have to get the NANPA folks to go along with that prefix, or we have to explore other alternatives.”

Establishing a new prefix for WKU is an ongoing process with no set timetable set, according to Weller.

Craft said WKU could use the 780, 781, 846 and 843 prefixes leftover from its south campus location once they run out of numbers.

That hasn’t happened, Craft said, as WKU has &#8220yet to make a request for the leftover blocks.”

&#8220But as Western grows, additional numbers will be needed in various locations in Bowling Green,” Craft said.

The leftover numbers stem from when WKU’s south campus was connected to its central telephone switchboard in 2004, Craft said.

&#8220We hope that within the next year, we will be assigned a new prefix, and in that way we won’t have to be assigned additional numbers,” Craft said.