Socorro is Moving! (From 505 to 575)

SOCORRO, N.M., Aug. 27, 2007 – OK, everybody, pick up all your stuff and move three steps to the right.

Just kidding. Socorro is moving, but there is no heavy lifting involved.

Beginning on Oct. 7, 2007, Socorro’s area code moves from 505 to 575. (Actually, the 575 code works already, but Oct. 7 is the official starting date.)

From Oct. 7 until Oct. 5, 2008 (almost a year later) BOTH area codes will work. After Oct. 5, 2008, ONLY 575 will work.

That gives you a year to

• re-program all your phones
• let all your friends, relatives, business contacts, and other important people know;
• use up all your business cards, letterhead, brochures, and other printed things,
• print new business cards, letterhead, brochures, etc, with the 575 area code.

According to Quest, “Services that operate with automatic dialing equipment may require changes or reprogramming. Some examples are life safety systems, fax machines, Internet dial-up numbers, alarm and security systems, security gates, speed dialers, call forwarding settings, voicemail, and similar services.”

You can start RIGHT NOW using the 575 area code and giving out the new number.

Here’s the hard part: Remembering which part of the state gets what number.

575: Socorro, T or C, Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Clovis, Deming, Hobbs, Las Cruces, Penasco, Roswell, Raton, Silver City, and Taos are some of the biggest towns changing numbers.

505: Albuquerque, Belen, Los Lunas, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Espanola, Farmington, Gallup, Las Vegas, Shiprock, and most of the Navajo Nation, as well as points in between, get to keep 505.

New Mexico Tech wll be changing the template on its web pages so that the phone number on the bottom of every page will have the 575 code.

-NMT-