Palos Verdes, and some inland areas beyond Interstate 405, will be assigned the separate area code of 424. The new area code also will include some of those requesting new lines being added to existing ones.
Beginning on Dec. 31, customers can-begin to familiarize themselves with the new system, phone carriers said.
All land line calls within the 310 area code that are currently dialed with seven digits will need to be dialed using a 1, plus area code, plus telephone number, phone carriers said.
To complete local calls, users may dial the area code, plus the telephone number or dial 1, plus area code, plus the telephone number.
According to phone carriers, Dec. 31 through July 26 will be a grace period during which calls not made with the new procedure will still go through.
By July 26, callers must use the new dialing procedure to complete calls.
By Aug. 26, phone carriers will begin to hand out 424 numbers, according to the CPUC.
The price of a call, coverage area or other rates will not change due to the overlay, phone carriers said. What is a local call now will remain a local call regardless of the number of digits dialed.
Phone customers can still dial three digits to reach 911 emergency services, as well as 211, 311, 411, 511, 611 and 711.
In approving the overlay, the CPUC rescinded the previously adopted plan for a geographic split of the 310 area code, which the CPUC leaned toward in 2000. The split would have created a new 424 area code south of the Imperial Highway, leaving the rest of the 310 region untouched.
The overlay, the change preferred by the major telephone companies, will create new 424 lines within the same region as existing 310 lines — a change that will result in residents having to dial 11 digits to call even a next-door neighbor.
Opponents of the overlay worked to block the efforts of T-Mobile, Nextel of California, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, SBC and other major phone companies.
While the overlay will force Westside residents to dial an area code when making local calls, it will allow existing business owners to avoid reprinting office stationery and business cards, the CPUC pointed out. Because a split would not have affected local businesses, the Santa Monica City Council had passed a resolution against the proposed overlay.
As of August, there were an estimated 381,000 available phone numbers remaining with the 310 area code, according to the CPUC.
The new 424 area code debate was born in 1999 when the CPUC considered an overlay to meet rapidly growing demand. Talk of overlay soon triggered a public outcry, which swayed the commission to instead implement number-conservation measures.
While the CPUC’s efforts served as a temporary remedy, growing demand in the 310 area returned the issue to the forefront. One conservation method used was “pooling,” which allowed telephone companies to obtain only 1,000 phone numbers at a time rather than the usual 10,000, according to the CPUC.
Before “pooling” was used, carriers often bought out large blocks of numbers, without having enough customers, leaving some numbers to go unused for a length of time.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 29, 2005. Read the original PDF.