Grace Period Over, 949 Gets No 714 Assist

Aggravation. And resignation.

That about sums up the reaction to Orange County’s graduation from two area codes to three as 949 officially went into effect early Saturday.

Mike Glascock, whose home on Cornell Street in Costa Mesa is now in the 949 area code, shrugged off the switch as “a sign of progress--getting populated.”

Stacy Welling, who lives a block away from Glascock but remains in the 714 area, said the change had only a minor--but inconvenient--impact: “I work three miles away from home and it will be long distance now.”

With the “get-acquainted” period over, callers who try to use 714--or no area code at all--to reach numbers now in the 949 area code will receive a recorded message instructing them to hang up and dial the number again using 949.

The county’s other area code, in the northwest, is 562.

Costa Mesa is in the thick of the 949 switch, because the city straddles the boundary between it and 714. Customers north of the boundary retain the 714 area code; the southern section becomes 949.

Some businesspeople say they are already feeling the effect of the change. Tom Jones, director of an art gallery at Triangle Square in Costa Mesa, said he had “noticed a slight reduction in calls.”

Anthony Molina, co-owner of a cellular phone and beeper business on 19th Street in Costa Mesa, said the new area code had a minor monetary impact on his business. “We probably paid a couple of hundred dollars for new business cards and stationery,” Molina said--though he acknowledged that the booming cellular phone and beeper industries are a big part of the reason a new area code was needed.

Patrick Zhang, owner of a small print shop at Harbor Boulevard and 19th Street in Costa Mesa, said there’s been a slight increase recently--as the official change drew near--in the number of customers wanting business cards or stationery with the new area code.

But, he said, “nobody has complained. Area codes are changing all over.”