562 Area Code May Need to Be Split Again

Pressed by yet another looming phone number shortage, planners have begun laying the groundwork for a new area code for the Long Beach-northwest Orange County area. The change could come as soon as October 2000, even though that region switched from area code 310 to 562 less than two years ago. The 562 area code was introduced in January 1997 to cover Long Beach, Lakewood, Artesia, Norwalk, Downey, Whittier, Paramount and Pico Rivera in Los Angeles County, as well as a small portion of Orange County. National area code planners said they will begin holding public meetings in the next six months to discuss whether to split the region geographically for a new code or to give all new numbers a new area code covering the same 562 region--an option known as an area code “overlay.”