Customers in 818 Area Told of Code Options

BURBANK —  State regulators unveiled eight possible ways to divide up the 818 area code Wednesday, hoping the many choices would mollify telephone users concerned the change will be costly and annoying.

Two dozen Burbank residents attended the first of four public meetings on impending changes to the 818 area code, which has covered the San Fernando Valley, Agoura Hills, Glendale and La Canada Flintridge since 1984.

Other informational sessions were held Wednesday evening in the city of San Fernando, with additional meetings scheduled for today at Cal State Northridge and the Las Virgenes Water District headquarters in Calabasas.

Telephone industry experts say changes in the code were necessary because demands for additional phone lines from such gadgets as computer modems, fax machines, pagers and cellular phones are rapidly eating up phone numbers, which are expected to dry up by 2001 in the 818 area if nothing is done.

The numbers crunch has left regulators little choice but to add an area code to the 818 region, either through a geographic division or by laying a new area code “on top of” the existing one, according to state Public Utilities spokeswoman Kyle Devine. The latter involves giving new phone lines a new area code, even though that code would cover the same geographic area as the 818 code.

“These number shortages are nationwide,” said Devine. “Until the demand slows down or we come up with a new way to pool telephone numbers, we are going to have more area codes.”

California started out with three area codes when they were first introduced in the United States, according to the Public Utilities Commission. The number of three-digit codes will have grown to 23 in the state by the beginning of next year.

Ten area codes--each one generating 8 million phone numbers--have been added in California since 1997, PUC officials said. But that is part of the problem, according to local residents, businesses and elected officials.

Critics charge that the constant revision of area codes is putting a financial squeeze on businesses, which must print new promotional materials and notify their customers. Residents say they don’t want to dial 11 digits just to talk to a neighbor or the police department.

“I’ve had the same house, the same dog, the same children, the same mailman, same husband and the same area code,” longtime Burbank resident Gloria O’Donohoe told industry experts and regulators Wednesday. “I don’t want to change any of them.”

Those are familiar words to officials from the cities of Burbank and Glendale, who vowed Wednesday to try to keep things the way they are.

“It seems like we just got finished fighting for an 818 area code,” Burbank City Councilman Bob Kramer said, referring to the city’s recent fight to avoid inclusion in 626 code for the San Gabriel Valley. “I’m hoping to avoid another fight, but we are not going to let another group get the 818 area code.”

Still, that may not be that easy under the eight proposals being pitched this week. With no one eager to relinquish allegiance to an area code, certain portions of the Valley could be pitted against others.

Two possibilities, for example, involve dividing the Valley into a northeast quadrant consisting of Glendale, Burbank-La Crescenta, Sun Valley, San Fernando, Sylmar and Pacoima, west to Northridge, and a southwest quadrant from Agoura to North Hollywood.

Under that scenario, one area would keep the 818 area code, and the other would be assigned a new one. Depending on which area is selected, new telephone numbers would not run out for at least eight years, according to the PUC estimates.

Another alternative calls for current Valley residents to keep their 818 area code with any new phone services being required to use a new area code overlay. The shelf life for those phone numbers is between 10 and 13 years.

Two additional provisions call for new area codes to be phased in in two of three geographic divisions, including a strip from North Hollywood to Glendale, another from Agoura to Van Nuys and a third from Northridge east to La Canada.

Projections under that plan show that new codes in those cities would not be required for between 11 and 37 years.

Finally, there is the possibility of an overlay combined with a geographic division, cutting the Valley down the center near the San Diego Freeway, into eastern and western halves, with one region getting a new area code. In the remaining 818 area, new phone subscribers would receive an “overlay” code. The supply of numbers under that plan would last 15 to 25 years.

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818 AREA CODE PUBLIC MEETINS

A series of public meetings will be held with representatives from the California PUC and phone companies to discuss possible changes to the 818 area code. Different scenarios will be presented, including an overlay and what the boundries might be if the area code is split.

Today: 1 p.m., Cal State Northridge Student Union, Santa Clarita Room, 18111 Nordhoff St.

Today: 7 p.m., Las Virgenes Municipal Water District boardroom, 4232 Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas