Berkeley, Oakland Areas to Get Their Own Area Code in 1991

Telephone customers on the Berkeley-Oakland side of San Francisco Bay will get a new area code, 510, starting in October, 1991, Pacific Bell announced Monday.

The present 415 code, which covers the entire Bay Area, will continue to be used for customers in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties and Treasure Island. The new 510 code will apply to Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Demand for new numbers for residential, business, cellular and computer telecommunications service prompted the change, said Pacific Bell senior engineer Jim Raber.

The new 510 code will bring the state’s total number of area codes to 10, more than any other state.

Long-distance phone charges will not be affected by the change, Pacific Bell said.

In the 1980s, California got two new area codes. In 1982, the 619 code was assigned to the part of the 714 area serving San Diego and a vast, lightly populated expanse sweeping east to the Arizona border and north nearly to Lake Tahoe.

In 1984, the 818 code was given to the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and other areas north of the Santa Monica Mountains and Hollywood Hills in the Los Angeles area.

Pacific Bell said the Los Angeles Basin will need an additional code “sometime in the next five years.”