Cellphone users keep their hometown codes

Jaclyn Lerner's apartment, her job and her life are in Manhattan.

Anyone calling her cellphone, however, must dial a Cleveland number.

Lerner, 26, hasn't lived in her Midwest hometown for nearly a decade, but she has no plans to ditch its identifying area code.

"There's no reason to give up 440. Everyone has cellphones, so it's not about long-distance" charges associated with landlines, the Lower East Side resident said.

Many young transplants to New York City are opting out of adopting a local cellphone area code. The city has six area codes -- the newest one, 929, debuted in April -- but these New Yorkers are taking a pass for reasons that range from convenience to nostalgia.

Some said it's too much of a hassle to update their cellphone numbers and inform contacts of the change. Others, who are unmarried and mobile, said there's no point in getting a new number each time they move. And a few said clinging to their native area codes keeps them closer to home, even if they never plan to live there again.

Michael Immerman, 27, keeps a Silver Springs, Md., number despite having settled in New York City nine years ago.

"There's a little bit of Maryland pride. I don't really think about it, but there is something nice about giving out my number and having people ask me, 'Oh, where are you from?' " said the Bushwick, Brooklyn resident. "It's a little bit of not letting go."

Immerman's cellphone area code is 301. "This is the only number I've had as a cellphone," he said. "I've become attached to it."

Verizon Wireless said it did not keep statistics on how many customers retain foreign area codes but are aware of the trend.

"As more and more people move to wireless communications, having one wireless number for life is becoming more common," said spokesman David Samberg.

AT&T Wireless said it doesn't have data on the trend and it doesn't financially affect the company.

CTIA -- The Wireless Association, a nonprofit group representing the wireless communications industry, said most carriers have national contracts and aren't fiscally affected by differing area codes in one location. Cellphone tax rates, however, differ from state to state, and customers living in New York could potentially be paying more if their bills are being sent to their families in their native states, said spokeswoman Amy Storey.

If someone has had a cellphone number for several years, it becomes part of their identity, according to Paul Levinson, author of "Cell Phone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium."

"When you move, you don't change your name, you don't change your email, so you don't need to change your cellphone number," he said. "In the age of cellphones, a cellphone number connects to us as an individual person, not to the place where they're living."

Native New Yorker Nick Edwards has lived in Miami for two years with the intention of putting down roots there. Still, he couldn't give up his 646 cellphone area code.

"I didn't want a Florida number. I wanted to keep my New York number," said Edwards, 21, who wound up returning to Battery Park. "It's been 10 years with that number. I've had it for too long."

Then there are those who don't mind a little change.

Eli Flowers, 20, of Union Square, Manhattan, hung on to a 513 area code from his native Cincinnati for two years in New York City before willingly switching to a local 917 one. The Ohio code, he said, confused clients he worked with at the advertising firm he started.

"I live here. I have a company here," he said. "I accepted it: I'm a New Yorker."