New phone numbers in use tonight

Press, 17 June 1988, Page 5

New phone numbers in use tonight

About 30 Telecom workers will be on band this evening to cope with the planned Telecom cut-over to new telephone numbers on the telephone exchange in Christchurch. The project engineer for the central floor exchange, Mr Wayne Thorne, said the staff would be available in case of problems during the “cut-over” set for 10 p.m. But the cut-over was tested on June 2 without a hitch and no problems are expected. The people most hit by the change will be customers whose existing telephone

numbers are five digits, which begin with 41, and those connected this month with numbers beginning with a five or a six. Staff would be based at central and outer exchanges to make test calls to ensure the numbers worked. The regional manager of Telecom, Mr Brian Finn, said the telephone service would would be disrupted from 10 p.m. when the 20,000 new numbers were added to the exchange. The main cut-over should take just a few minutes, but 500 subscribers in the cental city area could be disrupted for up to two

hours, he said. The Christchurch Women’s Hospital and Christchurch Hospital will get new numbers but their cut-over was expected to take only seconds. Telecom said the 1987 telephone directory should not be used after 10 p.m. today. Subscribers with some special services and abbreviated dialling on telephones, facsimile machines and other business equipment might need to reprogramme Mr Finn said the cut-over would enable thousands of new numbers to become available in the exchange area.