TOUGH CELL, from page 1 New area code a tough cell
By KIM CALVERT Special to the Daily Press
MALIBU — There’s a battle brewing between the north and the south —- but this time it’s over a proposed change in the 310 area code.
Public meetings were held this week by the California Public Utilities Commission in El Segundo, Redondo Beach, Malibu and Culver City over a petition filed by six telephone companies requesting permission to issue a new 424 area code overlay plan to new subscribers in the 310 area. Reactions from those who attended a meeting in Malibu on Wednesday indicate that people who live south of Imperial Highway prefer an overlay instead what’s known as a “split.”
Under the split plan, anyone living south of Imperial Highway would be forced to use a new 424 area code while those to the north would keep the 310 area code. The overlay would mean that any new number issued would be a 424 area code and existing customers would keep their 310 area code. Under the overlay plan, everyone would have to dial an 11-digit phone number.
The only issue both sides really agree on is they that would prefer no change at all, said Mary Jo Borak, the CPUC policy analyst who led the five CPUC hearings this week.
“Whether you want the split or the overlay pretty much depends on where you live,” said Borak at a public meeting held at Malibu City Hall on Wednesday. “People south of the proposed split line are asking ‘Why do the rich people in the north get to keep the 310 area code while all of us have to change to the 424?’ They want to keep the phone numbers they’ve had for years.”
Borak said the general consensus at meetings held in the northern section of the 310 area was that the geographical split plan was the preferred solution.
“But there is one unified message in all the meetings,” she said. “The phone industry is driving this when it should be the people. They think the phone companies are driving them to make a choice between the split or the overlay, rather than taking responsibility for managing their phone numbers more efficiently.”
Borak told the 75 attendees on Wednesday that since the phone companies first requested implementation of a 424 code overlay in 1998 — a request that was denied and later replaced with a 2000 plan to create the geographical split — the commission had embarked on a number measures in order to hold off the split for as long as possible.
“We’ve been baby-sitting this area code since then,” Borak said. “We petitioned the FCC for special consideration, and we’ve done a lot to conserve numbers, to prevent number hoarding and to make sure that phone number banks are used efficiently — but when the numbers are gone, they’re gone. It’s only a matter of time before it happens.”
James W. McTarnaghan, an attorney who represents Verizon, which is one of the petitioners for the overlay plan, said there was no question about numbers eventually running out.
“The CPUC has done a great job of conserving numbers, but we don’t think we can go longer than two years before some kind of area code relief will have to be implemented,” McTarnaghan said.
Susan Lipper, who represents T- Mobile, told the group the telecommunications companies realized area code changes were disruptive to consumers, but pointed out that a new area code could only be put in place once they had shown they had used up 75 percent of their number inventory.
“When that happens, we think that an overlay is the preferred solution to a split,” Lipper said. “With an overlay you don’t have half of your customers losing the area code they’ve had for years.”
Lipper acknowledged the necessity to dial an 11-digit phone number, even when dialing from one 310 number to another, was problematic, but added, “Our experience shows that the consumer can adapt.”
Joe Cocke, representing NeuStar, a private contractor retained by the FCC to assign phone number prefixes and to coor-dinate area code relief efforts, said based on his information, the 310 area code would be exhausted by the end of 2005.
Cocke would not say which was better, the overlay or a split, because NeuStar is not allowed to influence public policy.
“Either way, it’s up to the CPUC,” he said. “They’re the ones that make the decision.”
Michaela Pangilinan, who works with the CPUC, wouldn’t provide her estimate of when 310 numbers would run out but did say that Neustar’s projections had proven to be inaccurate in the past.
Pangilinan said the trigger for the overlay plan currently being considered would be when the remaining prefixes are reduced to six. Currently, there are eight.
Borak said she didn’t know when a decision about the overlay versus the split would be made.
“It will be a few months before we have something to vote on,” she said. “And in either case, it won’t happen until numbers reach a certain level of depletion.”
A representative from the office of State Sen. Sheila Kuehl read a statement in which the Kuehl expressed doubt that area code relief was even necessary, and if it was, she preferred a split.
“The telecommunication companies claim they’re running out of numbers... the split was already decided on back in 2000... why are they trying once again to get an overlay? That was an option we already decided we didn’t want,” Kuehl’s letter stated.
Kuehl’s letter also noted that the telecommunication companies said they were out of numbers five years ago when in reality, they weren’t.
“The phone companies seem to be revisiting an issue just because they were not satisfied with the split result,” read Kuehl’s representative.
Jack Allen, representing the Pacific Palisades Community Council, said he applauded the CPUC for keeping the 310 area code intact for as long as it has.
“But I’m still not convinced it’s time for a split, and the people in our community are still very much opposed to an overlay plan,” Allen said.
“It might sound good on paper, but it doesn’t work that great,” he added. “An overlay will be trouble for businesses and trouble for kids and seniors who have to dial 11-digit numbers.
“Instead of half of us being miserable, we’re all going to be miserable.”
A representative from the city of Malibu said the city was opposed to the split and the overlay, and instead wanted continued number conservation.
But not all “northerners” are opposed to the overlay plan. Santa Monica businessman George Lim told attendees that the split might be good for people north of Imperial Highway, but noted they weren’t being very considerate to people who lived south of the split line.
“I already dial 818, 323 and 213 many, many times throughout the day,” Lim said. “So what if I have to start dialing 310 or 424? The overlay is the simpler option.”
Gaylene Toccoli addressed the CPUC on behalf of the California Small Business Association.
“Our position prefers the overlay to the split,” Toccoli said. “Our organization understands how much people hate change, but we survived the ‘tragedy’ of the 213 split, and we can survive this.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 30, 2005. Read the original PDF.