Westside, Valley Not Accepting Calls for Area Code Overlays

Telephone companies didn’t expect much of a fight when they pushed to introduce California’s first area code overlays on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley.

An area code within an area code, the overlay has been accepted in many cities as a less painful alternative to splitting off new area codes. New York, Dallas, Houston, Denver and Atlanta all adopted overlays with only scattered protests, as did all of Maryland.

But the inconvenience of overlays--callers must dial 11 numbers instead of seven for local calls--has triggered a furor among customers in the 818 and 310 area codes. Businesses and homeowner groups--often at loggerheads--are for once united in their opposition.

The combination of citizen, business and political outrage forced the California Public Utilities Commission to shelve a planned overlay in the 310 area. The PUC has also put off a Thursday hearing on a proposed overlay for the 818 area until after a town hall meeting that day.

Pacific Bell and GTE Corp. say the overlays are needed to accommodate a surge in demand for additional phone lines for computer modems, fax machines, cellular phones and pagers.

But critics contend that the so-called shortage was artificially created by phone companies competing for a greater share of a booming market. They want phone companies to open their books to prove their claims of a number shortage and the need for new area codes.

Telecommunications providers concede that they have been caught off guard by the public outcry.

“We were surprised,” said Margaret Pascoe, director of regulatory numbering for Pacific Bell.

But Westside and Valley residents have a tradition of political activism involving anything they feel may diminish their quality of life--whether that is a new housing development or dialing more digits.

“Most people in these areas are well-to-do,” said Joe Cerrell, a veteran Los Angeles political consultant. “They have extra time on their hands to go to meetings, write letters and pick up the phone.”

Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst and a senior associate in the school of politics and economics at Claremont Graduate University, said the rebellion includes both older residents and young professionals.

“These are people who are older, more educated, better off and more involved in their communities,” she said. “They come from a tradition of political activism, and they are being replaced by yuppies who use cellular phones and don’t like the inconvenience of dialing 11 digits.”

And they say they have only begun to fight.

“Pac Bell and the PUC are going to have a rude awakening as to how active the business and residential communities are here in the Valley,” said Richard Close, longtime president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.

Opposition to the Valley overlay plan has mounted since June 30, when an administrative law judge recommended it to the PUC over an alternative plan to divide the 818 area.

The overlay plan is supported by telecommunications companies, which say it will be less disruptive to their customers. Under an overlay, all new phone lines in the 818 region would get the new (as yet undetermined) area code, and customers with existing 818 numbers would keep them.

The overlay is being actively opposed by groups and individuals including the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, the Encino Chamber of Commerce, City Atty. James Hahn, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., a powerful organization that represents hundreds of Valley businesses, prefers an overlay to a split, but members dislike both options and want to explore other alternatives, said spokesman Scott Schmidt.

The 310 overlay is opposed by key homeowner associations and business groups on the Westside. Bowing to mounting protests, the PUC agreed to postpone the July 17 introduction of the new 424 area code pending further review.

Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) has introduced the Consumer Area Code Relief Act, AB 818, to rescind the 310 overlay, ban future splits and overlays and create separate area codes for electronic devices requiring phone lines. The bill passed the Assembly and is being considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Industry observers say they have never seen such a highly organized, broad-based brouhaha over an area code relief plan.

“I haven’t heard of that degree of protest on a grass-roots level,” said Jamie Mendelson, a telecommunications consultant for the Strategis Group, a Washington-based international market research company.

“In New York, there were protests when the overlay began . . . but nothing as far as legislation being introduced.”

Only Chicago comes close to Los Angeles’ opposition movement, Mendelson said. Consumers there have pressed the Illinois Commerce Commission to consider plans to stop overlays and force phone companies to pool unused numbers.

California regulators began hearing from Valley consumers last month, when strong public opposition prompted the five-member PUC to defer action on the overlay proposal until after Thursday’s town hall meeting.

The Valley meeting was called by state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), who said he wanted to give phone users a chance to question state regulators about the plan.

Public Utilities Commissioner Carl Wood is expected to represent the panel at the public meeting, set for 6 p.m. at the Van Nuys State Building, 6150 Van Nuys Blvd.

In addition to Wood, Alarcon has invited Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) and representatives of telephone companies and area chambers of commerce.

Knox took on the area code overlay issue after his district office was flooded with phone calls from constituents saying they kept getting the runaround from their phone companies when they demanded details about the area code relief scheme.

“My staff alerted me that this was not a minor number of calls, but they were continuing and growing,” said Knox, whose district ranges from the southern Valley to West Hollywood and part of the Westside.

He acknowledges that he was initially intimidated by the complex overlay issue.

“Phone companies said it was too complicated. We wouldn’t understand. There was nothing that could be done,” Knox said. “Frankly, I think that was everyone’s attitude. No one was doing anything.”

Still, he directed his staff members to find out everything they could about overlays.

“When we laid out all the information, our jaws just dropped,” he said. “There were things that could be done that had been laying around undone for years.”

Knox said his Westside constituents were particularly peeved about the frustration and expense involved in dialing 1 plus the area code and the number for local calls.

There is no technological reason why customers have to dial 11 digits for local calls, telecommunications representatives say.

Phone companies are merely abiding by a Federal Communications Commission regulation that requires the additional digits to ensure fair competition among phone companies.

Existing companies such as Pacific Bell already control most of the 7.9 million numbers in the 818 area code. Without 11-digit dialing, the FCC reasons, established phone companies would have a greater competitive advantage over newer companies that could only offer numbers with a different area code.

“The purpose of the 11-digit dialing rule is to level the playing field so that consumers, hopefully, will have a choice of local-service providers and more services at lower prices,” said Anna Gomez, chief of the FCC’s network services division.

The FCC, PUC and North American Numbering Plan Administration, the agency that doles out numbers to phone companies, are looking at several ways to better administer available numbers.

Currently, for example, phone numbers are allocated to phone companies in lots of 10,000. The companies refuse to disclose how many of those numbers are in actual use, but critics contend that many are not--creating a false shortage of numbers.

One of the proposed reforms is to reduce the amount of numbers allocated at a time to 1,000. Others include requiring telecommunications companies to return unused numbers and putting all pagers, cell phones, ATMs, modems and fax machines on a single area code.

Despite the public outcry, a coalition of telecommunications companies including Pacific Bell, GTE, MCI and Sprint is pushing for the area code changes, saying an overlay or split is necessary to accommodate the growing demand for additional phone lines.

Pacific Bell and GTE, the two largest phone companies in Los Angeles, are pushing specifically for the overlay. That is the most efficient way to deal with the number crunch, Pascoe said, because it adds another 7.9 million numbers to the pot. An area code can be overlaid three or four times, virtually assuring that the area code will remain intact for years to come.

After Thursday’s meeting, PUC members said, they intend to weigh public comments before taking any action on the 818 area code proposal.

The overlay issue will probably be taken up again at the panel’s regular meeting Sept. 2 when the commission could approve an overlay, split or another alternative.

“I urge businesses and residents to get on top of this issue,” Alarcon said. “If they believe it will impact on their lives or livelihood negatively, they need to send a letter to the PUC posthaste, to let them know what their feelings are.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Overlay on the Way?

The California Public Utilities Commission is considering an area code overlay for the San Fernando Valley. An area code within an area code, the overlay would allow existing phone users to keep the current 818 area code while all new phones in Valley homes and businesses would get a new area code. The inconvenience of overlays has caused controversy among customers in the 818 and 310 areas. In the face of opposition, plans for a 310 overlay have been shelved.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS FOR USERS

An area code overlay would require callers in the 818 calling area to dial 11 digits even to phones in the same building or next door. Critics contend that 11-digit dialing would cause confusion, frustration and expense for residential and commercial callers.

* Dialing: All callers are required to dial 1, the area code and the phone number to reach other residences and businesses in the 818 area.

* Security systems: Apartment and condominium complexes that use telephone lines to open security gates or doors must be reprogrammed. Tenants may not be able to buzz visitors in via the security system.

* Modems and fax machines: Residents and small-business owners must reprogram electronic office equipment requiring telephone lines.

* Cost of reprogramming: Businesses that rely heavily on telephones--periodical subscription solicitors, stock and bond brokers, pollsters--would bear the cost of reprogramming telephone dialing systems.

* Additional phones: Expanding businesses adding telephone, fax or modem lines after an overlay would have two area codes in the same building. Similarly, residents adding a second phone line would have two area codes serving the same house.

11-DIGIT DIALING

There is no technological reason customers have to dial 11 digits to reach a number in the same area code. However, the Federal Communications Commission requires the additional digits to ensure fair competition among phone companies. If all callers have to dial 11 digits in the same calling area, officials said, then no one will have an unfair advantage of dialing only seven digits.

PENDING SPLITS AND OVERLAYS

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669 San Jose area overlays 408 Jan. 8, 2000 951 Riverside County first phase of 909 Feb. 12, 2000 935 E. San Diego County from 619, 3-way split June 10, 2000 341 East Bay overlays 510 July 15, 2000 764 San Mateo, Santa Clara overlays 650 Sept. 16, 2000 657 N. Orange County overlays 714 Oct. 7, 2000 628 San Francisco overlays 415 Oct. 21, 2000 752 San Bernardino County overlays 909 Feb. 10, 2001

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