Running Out of Numbers, L.A. to Get 3rd Area Code

The mathematics of life in the Los Angeles metropolis is about to become a bit more complicated. In a city where commutes already are defined by numerical sequences--as in, take the 110 to the 10 to the 405, and if you hit the 101 you’ve gone too far--an unprecedented third telephone area code is in the works, officials announced Tuesday.

In February, 1992, the boundaries of area code 213, which only five years ago begat the 818 area code, will be split again, creating a U-shaped sector of 2.4 million telephone customers with a new 310 area code.

The new district will include some of the city’s priciest neighborhoods--Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It also will serve more humble locales, such as Downey, Whittier, Compton and Lynwood. Downtown Los Angeles and some surrounding communities, such as Hollywood and Montebello, will remain within the 213 area code.

At a joint press conference Tuesday, GTE California and Pacific Bell officials said the addition of a third area code is necessary because they simply are running out of phone numbers for Los Angeles. It will become the first U.S. city encompassing three area codes--and those with a more metropolitan view of the Southland might count four codes, including Orange County’s 714.

The announcement reflects the region’s booming economy and increasing reliance on new technology, such as fax machines and cellular phones, according to Dominic Gomez, Pacific Bell regional vice president.

“This explosion in technology has exhausted our prefixes at a rate no one could have predicted,” he said.

The cost of calls between the 213 and 310 area codes will remain the same as before the split, officials said. Customers will retain their existing seven-digit numbers.

Since the 818 code was introduced in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys in 1984, an additional 1.3 million telephone lines have been added within the 213 area code. Based on that rapid growth, officials said, the phone companies would have run out of numbers by the end of 1992.

With the new 310 code, those who let their fingers do the walking are certain to get a bit more exercise. A caller one block east of La Cienega Boulevard who wants to ring a pizza shop a block west of the boulevard will now have to dial 11 numbers, as with any long-distance call.

On the Westside, the rough dividing line between the 213 and 310 area codes will be La Cienega Boulevard, slicing West Hollywood in half and resulting in immediate howls of protest from community officials and business people.

“This will have a serious impact on certain businesses in my city,” said West Hollywood Mayor Abbe Land, who was not consulted before the announcement. “Now people will have to say, ‘Oh, that business is on Fairfax and I’ll have to dial one prefix,’ or ‘Oh, this is west of La Cienega, I’ll have to dial another prefix.’ That’s unacceptable.”

Land, whose City Hall office will now be in a different area code than her home, said that the city of West Hollywood will explore possible legal action.

Defending the decision, telephone company officials said the new boundaries are governed by technological considerations rather than political guidelines. Rather than relying on city borders, they based the new districts on telephone prefixes.

“We looked at dozens of plans and there are no plans where some communities weren’t impacted,” said Pacific Bell media relations manager Kathleen Flynn. “This is the plan with the least amount of impact.”

One rejected alternative, officials said, would have kept Los Angeles International Airport and the Port of Los Angeles in the 213 area code. Growth patterns are such that such a split would have forced yet another new area code within 13 years, they said.

With the plan announced Tuesday, officials said, Los Angeles will not run out of phone numbers again before the year 2015.

The new division also reflects phone usage patterns, according to Stephanie Bradfield, GTE public affairs director. Los Angeles and Hollywood were kept together, she said, in part because of the large number of calls between the two communities. Bradfield warned against trying to read too much into the divisions: Creating a new status code was not the intent.

“Where there were strong ties, we tried to keep communities together,” she said. “ . . . (But) this is basically a technical engineering decision, not a social engineering decision. The code cuts a wide swath through the entire community.”

The choice of 310 as the new area code was a matter of deduction. There were but nine remaining area codes available in the United States, telephone officials said. Seven of these duplicated existing prefixes within the 213 area code. That meant the choice boiled down to 310 or 210.

Gomez of Pacific Bell said 310 won out because it was distinct from the existing 213 code. That the 210 code duplicated the numbers of the Foothill Freeway apparently was not a factor.

The new 310 code, which will take effect Feb. 1, 1992, is being assigned to 2.4 million customers. That will leave 2.6 million in the 213 code.

As when the 818 area code was introduced, phone subscribers will have a grace period in which they can use either code. In this case it will be three months. But that provided little consolation to some telephone customers when they heard of the change.

“This will greatly confuse things,” said Mitchell Ogas, manager of Sunset West Beauty Salon in West Hollywood. “You may be just down the street, but it will seem a world away with another area code. It will be much more complicated than with 818. . . . I would think they would have broken it up by city boundaries.”

Several businesses on La Cienega Boulevard with two phone lines will now have one in each area code. This is because their telephones have different prefixes, one served by each area code.

“This is going to be terrible. At Laffs R Us, we are not laughing today,” said Susan Valerie, program director of a “comedy traffic school” on La Cienega.

Among the few happy businesses contacted Tuesday were those that will get extra work printing new business cards, stationery or shop signs.

“It will be an inconvenience for most businesses, except for printing,” said Robert Davidson, a production manager at Printmasters in Los Angeles. “By the end of 1991, business will be booming. It will be great.”

Meanwhile, the city’s top real estate brokers speculated that the changes may actually reduce the status sometimes connected with area codes.

“It’s going to fragment that,” said Fred Sands, a well-known real estate executive. “You’ve got Beverly Hills sharing with San Pedro. They’re worlds apart.”

Sands said that in the past he has heard people from Beverly Hills put down San Fernando Valley residents as “real 818s.”

“Perhaps” he said, “the area code won’t signify as much as it did before.”

Times staff writers John H. Lee and Jocelyn Stewart contributed to this report.

NEW AREA CODE

Rough boundaries for the 213 area code and the new 310 area code as released Tuesday by GTE California and Pacific Bell. Because the changeover will be based on telephone number prefixes rather than geographic lines, the boundaries are inexact. The new area code will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 1, 1992. There will be a three-month period when callers can use either area code. On May 2, 1992, callers must use the correct code--either 213 or 310. The new 310 area code will include the western, coastal, southern and eastern portions of Los Angeles County, including Los Angeles International Airport. Downtown Los Angeles and some surrounding communities will retain 213. Callers in the 818 area code will remain in that area. Rates will not change. If a call was local before the introduction of the new area code, it will remain a local call.

SOURCES: GTE California; Pacific Bell