Senate Passes Bill Limiting Area Codes

Prompted by complaints over a new area code for Los Angeles, legislation requiring telephone companies to respect city boundaries when new area codes are created was unanimously passed by the Senate on Thursday and sent to the Assembly.

Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the Energy and Public Utilities Committee, authored the legislation to force changes in the area covered by Los Angeles’ proposed 310 area code.

An aide to Rosenthal, Paul Fadelli, said the bill would not undo the 310 area code but it could alter the present configuration. The bill would require Pacific Bell and GTE-California to adhere as closely as technically possible to existing city boundaries when planning and implementing the new area code.

As proposed now, the new area code would split such communities as Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Culver City, Bell Gardens, South Gate, Inglewood, the City of Commerce and Hawthorne. It is scheduled to take effect in 1992 and become Los Angeles’ third area code.

Rosenthal and Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) deplored what they termed the disruptive imposition of the proposed area code.

They said that neighbors living opposite each other on La Cienega Boulevard, for instance, would have different area codes and that confusion would occur for both local and long distance callers.

If an entire city could not be included in a proposed new area code, the bill would require the telephone companies to consider an area’s geography, “community of interests,” cohesiveness, integrity and compactness of territory.

Additionally, telephone companies would be required to notify their customers within a reasonable period of the proposed change.