Phone Cos. Have Your Number, and It’s Not 213 : Services: Starting Nov. 2, most local cities will change to a new 310 area code.

You live in Long Beach, area code 213. You work in Pasadena, area code 818. Several of your clients are based in Ventura County, area code 805. And your mother lives in San Diego, area code 619. All of this has caused you to frequent an expensive Huntington Beach therapist, area code 714.

But don’t despair, things are about to get worse.

As of Nov. 2, 2.4 million telephone customers in the 213 area code are going to break off to become part of a new 310 area code. In this part of the county, that means Long Beach and most Southeast cities will adopt what is about to become the fifth area code in greater Los Angeles.

Soon, you will be able to boast that you live in the part of the nation with the most cars, the most smog and the most area codes.

“Five--that’s the highest concentration of area codes anywhere in the country,” Dan Smith, spokesman for GTE California, said cheerfully. “All of New York state has eight.”

The new 310 zone will stretch from Long Beach to Malibu to Century City to Whittier.

Indeed, all that will be left of the 213 area is Hollywood, Los Angeles, Montebello and Maywood.

With the change less than a month away, Long Beach City Hall is already calculating ways to use up all its 213-engraved stationery before having to order new supplies with 310 on them. Cal State Long Beach uses 8 million forms and pieces of paper a year, and they all say 213. Businesses will have to reprogram their telephone systems, order new business cards, advertise new fax numbers, fix letterheads and reset home computers and speed-dial buttons.

But that is nothing compared to what is happening in Bell Gardens and South Gate, which are about to be sliced by two different area codes.

“The Bicycle Club will have to dial ‘long distance’ to call their bank, which is across the street,” Bell Gardens City Manager Claude Booker said, annoyed. “Our whole central business district is divided by this.”

Fearing that businesses would lose clients and residents would be reluctant to call a City Hall in a different area code, the two cities teamed up and fought the change all the way to the state Legislature.

GTE, Pacific Bell and the Public Utilities Commission explained that phone lines and city boundaries were drawn at different times and are not always compatible. Aligning them is too expensive, they argued.

The cities succeeded in winning a law that would require the utilities to study alternatives and solicit community input if they ever do this again, but the new law did nothing to remedy the dilemma at hand, according to Booker.

“They closed the barn door after our horse was out,” he said.

The same sort of irritating divisions resulted in 1984 when part of the 213 area broke off to become 818. San Fernando Valley children who forgot their lunches were said to cry when they tried to call their 213 homes from their 818 schools only to be told they had the wrong number.

“We know it’s going to be a hassle to contact relatives out of the state and business associates and inform them you have a new area code,” Smith said sympathetically. “But we’re running out of telephone numbers. I don’t want to incite a panic or anything, but we’re perilously close to running out.”

New area codes in the past were warranted by West Coast population spurts. But this time, new technology was the phone companies’ undoing.

Fax machines, personal computers, cellular phones and the like have become so popular that it is not unusual for one person to have several phone numbers. In fact, Smith reports, there are 3 million GTE customers with 3.7 million phone numbers.

To make the change easier, the phone companies are spending millions advertising on television, billboards and inserts mailed with monthly bills. During a six-month grace period, incorrectly dialed numbers will be put through. After that, errant callers will hear a recording urging them to try again.

If 1984’s 818 split is any indication, there is going to be a lot of hollering. But, as with anything, people seem to adjust.

“It’s just like the New Year’s check syndrome,” Smith said. “It takes a month before you stop writing the wrong year on your checks.”

Adjust, but don’t get comfortable.

In November, 1992, a big piece of the 714 area is splitting off to become 909.

Implementation of the 310 Area Code

If a seven-digit telephone number begins with one of the prefixes below, the area code number will change from 213 to the new 310 area code on Nov. 2 (the seven-digit telephone number will remain the same): 201-210, 212, 214-220, 246, 247, 270, 271, 273-282, 284-289, 297, 301, 302, 305, 306, 312-320, 322-338, 348, 352, 354, 363, 364, 370-379, 390-399, 401-404, 406-410, 412, 414, 416, 417, 419-459, 470-479, 490-499, 510, 512, 519, 521-524, 527, 529, 553, 556, 559, 568, 570-578, 590-599, 601-609, 615, 616, 618, 630-635, 637-649, 652, 657, 659, 670-677, 679, 690-699, 715, 719, 761-764, 767-769, 781-785, 787, 788, 791-799, 801-804, 806, 807, 809, 812-814, 816, 820-842, 854, 855, 858-869, 886, 898, 902-908, 914, 920-929, 940-949, 967, 970, 973, 978, 980-989

Notes:

* If a prefix is not listed above, the area code number is not scheduled to change.

* The general boundaries of the 310 area code will be La Cienega Boulevard to the west, El Segundo Boulevard to the south, the Montebello city line to the east and the 818 area code to the north.

* There will be a six-month period during which calls may be completed by using either the 213 or 310 area codes. After May 2, 1992, calls dialed with the incorrect area code will not be completed. Callers will reach a recording explaining the new dialing procedures.

Sources: GTE, Pacific Bell