HIGH-TECH WORLD MEANS MORE AREA CODES

Some St. Louis area residents are up in arms. The Missouri Public Service Commission has approved a plan to split the 314 area code, which includes St. Louis County, into two zones.

The need is plain enough. Officials expect to use up the remaining 314 phone numbers by late next year. The explosion of fax machines, cellular phones, computer modems and pagers have taken their toll on the pool of available numbers.

Take it from a region that went through this change in 1996: Yes, it's inconvenient, but no, it's not the end of the world. The 573 area code was introduced in January 1996 and became final in July of that year. There was a cost in terms of additional time and reprinted business cards and stationery. But two years later, the 573 habit seems natural enough.

As long as the new area code remains a local call for cellular phones, area folks probably won't miss a beat.

This fast-paced, high-tech world has its share of inconvenience: busy modem signals, low cell-phone batteries, computer hard-drive errors, a forgotten fax paper order.

These glitches can be bothersome and humbling. While machines often run the show, they too must slow down for a new century or a different area code.