310 Area Code Split to Affect O.C. : Utilities: The growth in cellular phones and faxes has the 4-year-old zone running out of numbers. The start of 562 is scheduled for January, 1997.

In a move sure to rile thousands, the California Public Utilities Commission has approved a new area code that will take in parts of northwest Orange County and most of Long Beach and other southeast Los Angeles County cities.

The new code will be 562, which will be split off from the present 310 area code that came into existence less than four years ago.

Long Beach has been vigorously fighting the move on the grounds that the city has already suffered economic distress and that the change will only cause more.

The move will place La Habra and parts of Los Alamitos and Seal Beach in the new area code.

“We’re very disappointed with the decision,” said Randal Hernandez, chief of staff for Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill. “Clearly the commission did not take economic impact into consideration.”

Marc O’Krent, who headed a grass-roots group opposing the split, viewed the decision similarly: “It’s not unexpected, but I think it’s bad. The commission didn’t do anything to get enough public input before making the decision.”

Most of Long Beach will get the new 562 area code, but four small areas on the western edge of the city will retain the 310 designation. Among the cities to receive the 562 area code are Pico Rivera, Whittier, La Habra, Downey, Norwalk and Lakewood. The western sector of the 310 area code, including Santa Monica, Torrance and Malibu, will remain the same.

The decision by the commission can be appealed only to the California Supreme Court.

The need for a new area code occurred because of the explosive demand for new telephone numbers to service cellular phones, pagers and faxes that have become so much a part of life in Southern California. This year, about 7 million new telephone lines will be added to the California system, about 60% of them for wireless equipment.

The prospect of running out of numbers for the 310 code resulted in several plans. The cities in the 562 code represent an area where the growth in telephone demand is slower, thereby making the need for another split less likely for some years, according to Pacific Bell.

Pacific Bell and General Telephone, the state’s present local carriers, proposed that people with the 310 code be allowed to keep their old numbers. The 562 area code would have been assigned to new customers under their plan.

But that move was opposed by a number of telecommunications and cable giants, who are entering the local telephone service market in January. The companies, which included A T & T, Sprint and Cox Cable, objected to the plan, complaining that Pacific Bell and GTE were giving themselves an unfair competitive advantage.

They argued before the commission that the 310 code should be split because otherwise the new entries in the market would be forced to use only the 562 code while Pacific Bell and GTE would have exclusive use of millions of 310 numbers.

Linda Bonniksen, a spokeswoman for Pacific Bell, said her company still does not believe a split was the answer to the growing demand.

“We don’t think rapid-fire area code splits are an appropriate means of relief in a metropolitan area like Los Angeles, but we’ll do it,” she said.

She also said companies such as A T & T were “gloating over this victory, knowing full well the customer will bear the huge burden of that victory.”

But Walter Mosley, of A T & T’s governmental affairs division, said the commission’s decision will end the uncertainty of where the line of demarcation will be drawn for the new area code.