Talk of New Area Code Sets Off Alarms : Communications: Demand may require split or overlay in South County. Business owners and residents are displeased.

By DAVID HALDANE

Sept. 10, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Barely 18 months after disrupting the lives of South County telephone users by changing their area code, communications regulators say they may have to do it again.

The news stirred indignation among business owners and residents, some of whom are still inconvenienced by the last change.

“I am not thrilled,” said Laura Eustace, owner of a secretarial service in Laguna Beach. “I haven’t had a chance to even change my business cards to 949 yet.”

The 949 area code--serving Aliso Viejo, San Juan Capistrano, Corona del Mar, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, San Clemente, Trabuco Canyon, parts of Costa Mesa and most of Irvine--was carved out of the 714 area in April 1998. But a new area code will be needed soon, experts say, based on the projected demand for telecommunications service such as cellular phones over the next 30 months and a proliferation of businesses providing it.

“It’s the same reason new area codes are needed all over the country,” said Rebecca Barnhart, a spokeswoman for the North American Numbering Plan Administration, which oversees area codes nationwide. “There is an increased demand for phone numbers because there are now more competitors in the market providing services.”

Barnhart said her agency plans a series of local public hearings on the matter beginning next summer. Following that, she said, it will take input from local phone companies, which then will make a recommendation to the California Public Utilities Commission.

The new area code, which has not yet been selected, could take effect sometime in 2002, Barnhart said. “Keep in mind that this is only the initial stage of the planning process,” she said.

Still to be determined, Barnhart said, is whether the new area code would be a split, in which a portion of the existing 949 area would be assigned a new number, or an overlay, in which only new customers within the existing area would be assigned new codes.

“I would encourage people to attend the public hearings to voice their opinions and concerns,” said Barnhart, adding that the agency is also planning a new code in the 626 area serving the San Gabriel Valley.

In a related development, the state Senate passed a bill Thursday requiring a study for any future area codes or overlays statewide, thus making phone companies prove their claims that the unpopular measures are needed to provide continued phone service to consumers.

The legislation also requires phone companies to preserve current area codes to the extent possible, ensure that retired numbers are reused rapidly and use numbers more efficiently.

Finally, the bill mandates that the PUC establish a consumer education program on area code splits, overlays and number-conservation measures.

The legislation passed on a 35-0 vote, sending it to the Assembly, where a floor vote was pending late Thursday.

Telephone companies have implemented area code splits and overlays in New York, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Atlanta and the entire state of Maryland with little opposition.

But the inconvenience of overlays--callers must dial 11 digits instead of seven for local calls--triggered outrage among customers in the 714, 818 and 310 area codes, where phone companies pushed to introduce California’s first overlays.

Kyle DeVine, a PUC spokeswoman, said her agency is not eager to impose a new area code in Orange County, but “we’re having one heck of a problem out here. I don’t think anyone is happy about it.”

While the need for new area codes is a nationwide phenomenon, DeVine said, the problem is particularly intense in California, where the popularity of multiple phone lines, pagers, cell phones, automated teller machines, modems and fax machines has created one of the largest telecommunications markets in the world. As a result, she said, the two major companies that provided such services in 1997 have blossomed into more than 300 companies statewide today, including an estimated 40 operating in south Orange County.

“What’s happening,” DeVine said, “is that the local phone competition is causing prefixes to be gobbled up, and that’s causing area codes to run out of prefixes.”

That explanation does not ease the frustration of the customers affected.

“Just about anywhere you are, you have to dial 10 numbers to get out,” said Alan Halderman, 43, of Newport Beach. “Getting 949 really bothered me. Time is very important, and you’re just wasting time.”

Matthew McRae, 25, who runs an Internet software business out of his home in Irvine, said that a new area code could cost him plenty. “Every time they change the area code,” he said, “I need new business cards, new letterhead, and my clients start having trouble contacting me. It’s money I’d rather spend somewhere else.”

Even the middle school crowd is feeling the pinch, said Eric Heberit, a sixth-grader in Irvine. “It’s kind of weird that they keep changing area codes,” said Eric, 11. “When I try to call a friend, I keep getting that lady who says that you’ve got the wrong number. I’d like to keep it the same for a while.”

Times staff writers Miguel Bustillo and Karima A. Haynes contributed to this report.

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Area Code Proliferation

The California Public Utilities Commission is considering several area code splits and overlays to handle the demand for additional phone lines in Southern California.

How area codes have stacked up for the past 50 years.

1947 - 213

1951 - 714

1957 - 805

1982 - 619

1984 - 818

1991 - 310

1992 - 909

1997 - 562

1997 - 760

1997 - 626

1998 - 949