Montana forced to add area-code dialing after national suicide hotline started

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on October 27, 2021.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

The creation of a U.S. national suicide hotline will require Montana residents to add the area code for local calls beginning this week.

The 10-digit dialing system came into force on Oct. 24, with the state’s area code – 406 – now required to precede existing phone numbers that will not change.

The step was needed after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced it will create a national suicide prevention line for U.S. residents at “988” this month.

That is the local exchange in several Montana towns, and without adding the area code, those calls would be wrongly directed to the crisis line. Long-distance calls to and from the state are not affected.

Montana is the 37th American state to adopt 10-digit dialing, which has been in place in Alberta since 2008.