The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission scheduled IURC’s first public...

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission scheduled IURC’s first public field hearing for Friday on whether to overlay a new area code in the area currently covered by the 317 code, which covers the Indianapolis metropolitan area. The hearing is to begin at 10 a.m. at PNC Center in Indianapolis. Additional meetings are Oct. 1 in Carmel, Oct. 14 in Franklin, Oct. 29 in Danville and Dec. 1 in Greenfield, IURC said. The commission is considering three area code overlay proposals from Neustar, one of which would overlay the new area code over the entire 317 area code area and require 10-digit dialing. A second proposal would overlay the new area code only in the central portion of Indianapolis and let customers outside central Indianapolis continue using 10-digit dialing until new phone numbers in the 317 area code are exhausted -- which is projected for 2017, IURC said. A third proposal would overlay a new code only in Indianapolis and 10 other municipalities in Marion County and require 10-digit dialing in the overlay, IURC said (http://bit.ly/1v4shVR). Indiana’s Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC) said Wednesday it’s encouraging consumers to comment on the proposals by speaking at the IURC’s hearings or submitting written comments to OUCC by Dec. 29. OUCC said it plans to file testimony Jan. 6 based on consumer comments (http://bit.ly/1ojc8WJ).