May 6, 2002

Contact: Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858.

Student housing phone prefixes to switch from 312 to 812 on May 31

LAWRENCE -- The prefix for all personal telephone numbers in student living areas on the University of Kansas' Lawrence campus will switch May 31 from 312 to 812, the Department of Networking and Telecommunications Services announced today.

On-campus callers may continue to access these phone numbers by simply dialing 2 and the last four numbers. The last six digits of all numbers will remain the same. Any difficulties in placing long-distance or cellular calls to the new numbers should be reported to the long-distance or cellular carrier being used.

The university has acquired all 10,000 numbers in the 812 exchange from Southwestern Bell, giving KU the flexibility to expand service in the future. There are about 2,400 personal student phones on campus.

The 312 prefix was introduced in 1999 when the university acquired 5,000 phone numbers after using up its block of 10,000 numbers with the 864 prefix.