SOUTHLAND : 310 Area Code to Join County’s 818 and 213 in February, 1992

Telephone customers in the western, coastal, southern and eastern portions of Los Angeles County will get a new area code--310--beginning in February, 1992, officials with two area phone companies announced today.

Downtown Los Angeles and some surrounding communities, including Hollywood and Montebello, will remain in the 213 area code. However officials from GTE California and Pacific Bell, in explaining the move, said they are are quickly running out of telephone numbers in Los Angeles.

The new area code will take up most of the geographic area now included in the 213 area code.

The Westside boundary between the two codes will be La Cienega Boulevard, stretching as far south as Inglewood. The new 310 code will be used by some of the city’s priciest neighborhoods, such as Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and it will also serve less glitzy communities such as Downey, Whittier, Compton and Lynwood.

The communities most affected by the change will be the city of Los Angeles, which will have three area codes, and West Hollywood, where about half the phone subscribers will keep the 213 area code and the others will switch to the new code.

Just as when the 818 area code was introduced in the northern part of the county, callers will be given a three-month period in which they will be allowed to use either the 213 or 310 area codes after the change takes effect.