Brief by Central Staff
Communication – November 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
For years, Salidans used four digits when exchanging phone numbers: the 539 prefix was just assumed, as in “we’re at 5345.” That has changed with growth — now there’s 530, as well as 221 for cellular telephones.
Now the Crestone-Moffat area in Saguache County, served by the Columbine Telephone Co., is undergoing a similar change.
There the custom was three digits, with the 256-4 assumed. Henceforth they’ll need four, because most new numbers will be assigned from the 256-5 block.
In other news on the telephone front, there hasn’t been any. The planned sale of most area US West exchanges to Citizens Utility appears on track, and US West continues to avoid making any local investments.
We learned that as we continued to struggle to make a fax machine coöperate with our phones and modems. “Distinctive ringing” seemed like a good answer — the fax machine would get its own number, although it wouldn’t require a new line.
Of course that service, even if it is promoted in US West’s TV ads, is not available in Salida, and US West does not have any local upgrades scheduled.