With all the talk about the Two Maines, the Other Maine, economic disparity and population shift, there is one thing that binds this state together — its single telephone area code. Good old 207. It seems like a small, technical matter, but it has significant practical and emotional ramifications.

That’s about to change. The Federal Communications Commission has notified Maine that it will run out of phone numbers by the fall of 2000 and must immediately make plans for a second area code.

Only Maine is not about to run out. Not even close. Maine has a population of 1.2 million. There are roughly 10 million permutations of the seven digits available under each area code. State officials estimate some 7 million are unused.

The root of the problem is that new numbers are doled out to telephone, wireless, Internet, paging and burglar-alarm companies in blocks of 10,000, the four-digit possibilities in each three-digit exchange. Even if a small paging outfit has reasonable expectations of only 500 customers, it gets 10,000 numbers. You can gobble up a lot of phone numbers that way.

Bill Nugent of the Maine Public Utilities Commission says there are a number of ways this ersatz numbers-crunch can be prevented. Number portability — the ability of a person or a business to keep the same number when they switch telecommunications providers — is one. Apportioning numbers in smaller blocks, say of 1,000, is another. The FCC, however, will not allow states (Massachusetts and New Hampshire are fighting the same deadline) to adopt such conservation measures until after they have installed new area codes.

In other words, says Nugent, “We have to go through the disruption, the inconvenience, the expense of a new area code before we can take the steps to avoid it. It’s backwards.”

There are two ways an area code can be added. One, preferred by the telecommunications industry, is called overlay. Everyone now with a 207 number keeps it and newcomers, regardless of location, get a new code that is laid over the old. This has been used in other states and it’s caused nothing but confusion and unrest. Imagine having to dial a 10-digit number to order a pizza from the new joint down the street.

The other method is to divide the state into two geographic regions, with one keeping 207 and the other having to change. The only practical way to do that would be in population blocks, which means the Southern Maine/Northern Maine rift would go from perceived to real. Among other things, this would leave approximately half of Maine businesses with obsolete stationery, business cards and brochures.

What’s wrong with the FCC’s position, besides being stubborn and arbitrary, is that it ignores the inevitable. At the rate new area codes are being imposed, the supply will soon be exhausted and conservation measures will be unavoidable.

Conservation measures, such as portability and distributing numbers in smaller blocks, would require investment in new technology by telecommunications companies. Beware the three-year/$3 million phenomenon. “Every time we propose any changes, that’s what we’re told it will take in time and money to carry out,” Nugent says. “It will be interesting to see if it comes up again.”

If so, so what? A one-time capital expense of $3 million divided among a million or so customers is nothing compared to the economic and social costs of an unnecessary new area code. At a time when it is more important than ever that the Two Maines tear down the barriers and become one, any reasonable expense is a small price to pay to avoid building another wall.