What's New
The Building Blocks of our Numbering Plan are changing!
For many years, CSULB has purchased the following number ranges from the telephone company:
- 985-1500 through 985-2999
- 985-4000 through 985-9699
Only these numbers, known as DID (Direct Inward Dial) numbers, could be dialed from anywhere off-campus, and reach the corresponding extension number. Numbers that were not part of the ranges above, had to be reached through the campus operator or some other intermediary. These numbers were assigned as people’s primary extension number or ODN (Own Directory Number). For people who needed to block off-campus callers from reaching them directly, we offered the following number ranges:
- 50000 through 51499
- 53000 through 53999
As you can see, these extensions are not 7-digit telephone numbers, so they have not functioned as DID (Direct Inward Dial) numbers. These numbers were assigned as people’s primary number, or ODN, but could not be dialed from off-campus. For many years, the campus numbering plan could accommodate 7,200 DID ODN lines and 2,500 ODN lines that were not DID numbers. The second group of 2,500 numbers (listed above) were not accessible by the public (from off-campus).
Our growing University needs a path to the future! For this reason, we have been acquiring more DID numbers from the telephone company. We have also implemented a new range of extension numbers for people who need to block off-campus calls. The new range of extension numbers that is not directly accessible by the public is:
- 40000 through 49999
Again you may notice that these are extensions and not 7-digit telephone numbers. After the transformation of the numbering plan is complete, the campus will have 10,000 extension lines that are not accessible by the public, and another 10,000 DID numbers that are directly accessible from off-campus. It may take awhile before the transformation is complete, but soon there will be visible changes in the printed directory, and in the online lookup.
The result will be approximately 20,000 numbers for use as ODN lines, instead of only 10,000, and more DID numbers to implement in new buildings for the University!