By Kevin Ueda
Special to the Daily Press

CITYWIDE — For thousands of phone users on LA’s westside, the seven-digit number is a thing of the past starting today.

An overlay of the 310 area code will take full effect today, which will require residents and businesses to re-enter phone numbers to accommodate a calling system new to the region.

Residents must now dial 1 + 310 + a seven-digit number for all local calls from a land line, even if it is to the next-door neighbor, according to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). However, if the local call is made by a cell phone, the caller does not have to dial “1” before the area code and seven-digit number, according to CPUC officials.

The CPUC approved the overlay in August of 2005 to remedy a shortage of phone numbers, foreseen by the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA), said CPUC spokeswoman Susan Carothers. At the time, the 310 area code had about 381,000 phone numbers left.

New phone customers in the existing 310 areas — including the westside, South Bay and part of Ventura County — will be designated a 424 area code after Aug. 26. The designation does not work retroactively, so all numbers currently listed as 310 in the current 310 areas will remain the same, Carothers said.

Three-digit calls for services such as 911, 211, 311, 411, 511, 611 and 711 also will remain the same, according to CPUC officials.

Despite the increasing scarcity of 310-prefixed phone numbers, cities such as Santa Monica and Mar Vista still have an abundance of 310 numbers left, while San Pedro has none at all, said CPUC analyst Kyle DeVine. It is up to a phone company to decide whether or not it wants to use up the remaining 310 phone numbers after Aug. 26, DeVine said.

The CPUC provides phone numbers for free to phone companies who can demonstrate the need for them, or that they are ready to begin service, DeVine said.

“They have to submit data that shows that they are expanding in an area and they need new numbers — they have to prove that,” DeVine said.

Prior to the adoption of the overlay plan, the CPUC utilized a strategy of “pooling,” to blunt the rapid rate at which phone numbers were being given out. Pooling allowed the CPUC to give companies only 1,000 phone numbers at once, instead of the normal 10,000. The plan is still in effect, DeVine said.

Phone companies used to obtain blocks of numbers that would go idle, as the amount obtained exceeded the amount of customers.

DeVine couldn’t say which phone companies had the most numbers on reserve. However, she said Verizon and what was formerly Pacific Telephone, now AT&T, had the monopolies up and down the Southern California region. Verizon had the majority of customers in coastal cities such as Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes, while Pacific Telephone had the inland communities.

Phone companies that anticipated a dearth of phone numbers began their efforts to create an overlay in 1999. Those companies included T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and what used to be SBC, now AT&T. The companies’ efforts were publicly opposed and they consequently resorted to other means of conserving phone numbers.

Although the change has been in progress for years now, some residents are still in the dark about it.

Vernon Stone, 49, who works for the city’s street maintenance department and is a Sprint customer, said the company has not sent him any notification about the overlay plan.

“The only reason I know is because my co-worker is changing a lot of his (phone numbers) now,” Stone said. “He’s been changing them since last week.”

Stone has about 50 entries in his cell phone, most of which belong to friends, family and co-workers within the 310 region.

He said changing the numbers is a hassle that service providers should not lay on its customers for the sake of preparing extra phone numbers in the future.

“We (are) paying for service, so I think (cell phone companies) should fix it, give us something,” Stone said.

DeVine said the CPUC partnered with the Public Education Program (PEP), comprised of telephone companies, to get the word out about the overlay, in the form of posters, bus stop ads and radio and television advertisements. The CPUC provides direction to PEP and is currently tracking how effective its notifications have been, she said.