The number on the print run
Why writing ten digits from today costs nothing, and what porting a number between providers involves.
Read about business numbers
Savannah, GA
Business VoIP in Savannah, GA
912 has covered coastal Georgia on its own since 1954, and that is due to change. A second code has been announced for this area and is not in service yet, which puts businesses here in an unusual position: the thing that catches most cities by surprise is, for once, visible in advance.
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One code now, two later, and the useful gap in between
912 was split off from the original state code in 1954 and covers Savannah and the coast down to the state line. Nothing has ever been laid over it. Seven digits still reach across town, and a number lettered on a van twenty years ago is still a complete number.
That is going to change. A second code has been announced for this area as a future overlay. It is not in service, no date has arrived, and nothing about your number changes when it does: an overlay never renumbers anybody. What it will change is the dialling, and that is the part worth preparing for.
Once two codes share one map, seven digits stop being unambiguous, so every local call needs all ten. At that point anything of yours showing seven digits becomes incomplete: vehicle lettering, signage, printed forms, invoice templates, the website footer, a recorded greeting that reads the number out at the end, and whatever a supplier or a directory is still holding.
Most cities discover that list the hard way, in the weeks after an overlay lands, when a truck has just been relettered and a print run has just been collected. Here there is warning. The cheap version of this job is doing it during your normal replacement cycle: the next time a vehicle is lettered, the next time forms are reprinted, write ten digits. Done that way it costs nothing at all.
What to actually do with the warning
Three things, none of them urgent and all of them cheaper now than later.
Write ten digits on anything new from today. Signs, vehicles, business cards, forms, the site footer. A ten digit number works perfectly well today, so there is no cost to being early and no need to replace anything that is currently correct.
Make a list of where your number appears. Not to act on now, but so that when the date is announced you are working from a list rather than from memory. The expensive misses are always the ones nobody remembered: a directory entry, a supplier's account record, a sticker on a piece of equipment.
And when the time comes, expect to be offered the new code for any new line. It will cover exactly the same ground as 912 and it is not a lesser number, whatever anybody tells you. The only thing it says is that the line was ordered recently.
None of which makes the service local
There is no coastal Georgia phone product. The software is the same one a business in Montana is sold, it runs a long way from here, and the only thing your address decides is the three digits on the front. An overlay does not change that either.
How VoIP works and what it asks of your connection are on the main business VoIP guide. The rest of the state, including the metro that has had several codes stacked on it for years, is on business VoIP in Georgia. Keeping digits you already have printed is on business phone numbers.
Who gains here
Two economies share this coast and they want opposite things from a phone. One is the port and the enormous logistics and warehousing operation around it, which runs continuously and deals in scheduled, contractual work with known counterparts. The other is tourism, hospitality and the trades and services that feed it, which deals in strangers with dates.
The logistics side wants a call to reach one named person quickly, wherever they are, and it wants something better than voicemail when that person is on a floor or in a yard. A direct number each and a rule that hands an unanswered call to a colleague does more than any menu. Virtual phone system covers it.
The visitor side wants somebody to answer at the hours visitors actually ring, which run past five and into weekends, and it wants plain information from whoever picks up. A caller who has booked a date and cannot reach you will ring the next name rather than leave a message. Auto attendant and extensions covers the greeting, and the honest version states when you are genuinely available rather than implying a staffed desk on a Sunday.
Who should not bother: one person, one phone, customers who already reach you. That is a monthly cost against a problem you do not have. And if the connection into your building is unreliable, deal with that first, because voice is less forgiving than anything else you run over a line. VoIP vs landline is the honest case for copper.
Worth doing before the second code arrives
None of these are about Savannah. The first one is the job the announcement creates, and the other three are the ordinary decisions behind any business number.
Reaching one named person
Direct numbers and extensions for somebody on a floor or in a yard, without publishing a personal mobile.
Read about virtual systemsWhat a visitor hears at seven
Greetings and menus, including the honest version that states when you are actually available.
Read about auto attendantWhether to switch at all
The honest case for keeping a copper line, which still applies to some buildings and connections.
Read VoIP vs landline
Common questions
Savannah VoIP questions
A second area code has been announced. Will our 912 number change?
No. An overlay adds a code to the same territory rather than splitting it, so no existing number is renumbered and 912 will keep reaching everything it reaches now. What changes is that every local call will need all ten digits, which makes anything of yours printed with seven incomplete. That is a reprinting job and you have warning, which most places do not.
Should we start printing ten digits now?
Yes, on anything new, and no, you do not need to replace what is already correct. A ten digit number works perfectly today, so writing them on the next batch of cards, the next vehicle and the next form costs nothing and removes the work from the week it would otherwise land in. Making a list of everywhere the number appears is worth doing at the same time.
Will a number in the new code look worse than a 912 one?
Only to somebody who is paying unusual attention. The new code will cover exactly the same ground, so it will say nothing about you except that the line was ordered after it launched. If you already hold a 912 number it is worth porting rather than replacing, because it is printed on things you have paid for.
Use the warning while you have it
Tell us where your number is currently printed and how calls reach you now. Most of what this page suggests costs nothing, and we will say so where that is true.