Complaints Filed by Burbank, Glendale Over New Area Code

The cities of Burbank and Glendale have filed a complaint with the state Public Utilities Commission in an effort to avoid an area code split scheduled to take effect next summer.

Beginning June 14, 1997, the 818 area code will be split to keep up with the high demand for new telephone numbers. Current proposals by the telecommunications industry call for the new 626 area code to cover the San Gabriel Valley as well as Burbank and Glendale.

Residents and officials of the two cities don’t like the plan, complaining that the new area code would cost them millions of dollars as they change everything from letterheads and business cards to World Wide Web pages and the sides of delivery vans.

Besides, they argue, Burbank and Glendale are more a part of the San Fernando Valley--which will keep the 818 area code, at least for now--than of the San Gabriel Valley. In the complaint filed March 1, the cities argue that the boundaries of the split should be moved east to Glendale’s border with Pasadena.

How to split 818 geographically was decided last year by a consortium of telecommunications companies that included long-distance carriers such as AT & T and MCI as well as cable companies and local service providers such as Pacific Bell.

Placement of the lines was determined more or less by the numbers, said Pacific Bell spokeswoman Linda Bonniksen. About 2.4 million phone numbers would be affected by the change to 626--or about 46% of the numbers now part of 818.