The Nebraska Public Service Commission said the state won't need a third phone area code until at least the second quarter of 2010.

The PSC said Wednesday in a news release that conservation measures have added six months to the last predicted date for exhaustion of 402 numbers. Experts had said Nebraska would need a third area code by the fourth quarter of 2009.

Exhausting the phone numbers would have required people to either use 10 digits for local calling or deal with a new area code in what had been 402 territory.

The PSC said Omaha or Lincoln likely would keep 402 and the rest of 402 would have a new code.

It's predicted that western Nebraska's 308 area code won't run out of numbers until 2030