SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- The Public Utility Commission has added a telephone area code for much of Oregon: 458.

Beginning in 2010, it will be assigned in the area that uses 541 -- all of the state outside the populous northwest corner.

Adding a number in the 541 area is essentially the solution the commission came to in 2000 when it added 971 in the 503 area of northwest Oregon.

The commission says projections showed the 541 area would have run short of numbers by 2011.

The commission says nobody has to change a current number, and there won't be a change in which calls are local and which long distance.

But it says that after a six-month grace period, callers in the 541-458 area will have to use 10-digit dialing for all numbers.