area code is not projected to cost the Bermuda Telephone Company significant sums of money, according to general manager and secretary, Mr. Ernest Pacheco.

He said: "We will have to make adjustments within our central office to accommodate the new numbering scheme. We don't have a specific figure to give you as to cost. It is not that significant.'' Neither will it mean any significant new costs for the international carrier, Cable and Wireless, although senior manager of operations Mr. John Fuge, pointed out that there can be some costs for Bermuda businesses.

Mr. Fuge said: "Numbers are changing around the world all the time. We would just punch those numbers into a switch, or large computer.

"The big costs that are out there are for businesses. They need to be advised and they need to change their business cards and letterheads.'' But Mr. Fuge agreed that with a year's grace period leading up to the change over and a "grandfather'' period for a year after that when both dialled area codes will work, businesses with a little planning, can exhaust their supply of old business cards and letters.

The change will remove restrictions that Bermudians have had to contend with now. Mr. Pacheco said that in some areas of North America, telephone companies will block a call attempt from a pay phone to an 809 number, even an 809 number in Bermuda.

"It is because of the fraudulent use of the long distance service by some people in the Caribbean that the 809 numbers in certain circumstances were blocked from the United States and Canada,'' said Mr. Pacheco.

"That was the specific problem. There were certain restrictions implemented by administrations within the United States and Canada to block calls to the 809 area.

"I did speak to Canadian authorities sometime ago about the fact that there was no fraudulent use of people calling into Bermuda from outside. But unfortunately, they did not have the capability of being able to distinguish Bermuda's numbering from the other countries having the 809 area code.'' The real impetus for the change to 441 was that it was projected that by 1995, the available telephone numbers under the 809 code would be completely exhausted.

There is also expected to be a change for a number of Caribbean countries, although none will share Bermuda's number in the future.