I haven't heard of the plan that was described for adding a 9; if this exists, I believe it is at most still a proposal.
Somewhere this article should explain (better) why NPAs fill up.
Personally, I think we should think about unallocating unused numbers, usused being any number which is not published for dial-in. For example, many companies have a block of numbers in a roll-over group, of which they only use one. - Justfred