ILLINOIS (RFD) — Starting Sunday, anyone making a local call in Illinois will have to dial the area code first, even for local calls. Your phone number will not change, but if you try to dial local without the area code first, you will be informed your call cannot be completed as dialed.

Citizens’ Utility Board spokesman Jim Chilsen says the big phone companies claim they need this.

Area code 618 has telephone numbers assigned for the central office code 988. 988 has been designated nationwide as a dialing code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which creates a conflict for exchanges that permit seven-digit dialing. This area code is therefore scheduled to transition to ten-digit dialing, mandatory after October 24, 2021.^[2] This will also break seven-digit dialing in Illinois; area codes 309 and 708, the only other area codes in the state that have not been overlaid, will also switch to ten-digit dialing for the same reason.

While he says it’s “not the end of the world,” it is still an annoyance that could have been avoided. You will still be able to dial three-digit numbers such as 911, 411, or 211 without dialing an area code first.