PUC Draft Revives Plan for Overlay in 310 Area Code

State regulators have released a draft decision that would resume plans for an overlay area code in the 310 region, despite strong last-minute resistance from residents and businesses in West Los Angeles and the South Bay.

The tentative decision, issued late Tuesday by the Public Utilities Commission, would reconsider the current requirement for 11-digit dialing in the overlay communities and would launch a study to determine how many of the available telephone numbers are in use.

The draft ruling was written by PUC Commissioner Henry Duque. But it is not final, and another commissioner may come forward with an alternative proposal. The PUC is scheduled to vote on the matter Sept. 2.

If Duque’s proposal is adopted, the overlay would take effect Oct. 16.

While acknowledging the disruption caused by new area codes, Duque said opposition came too late to avoid the change in the 310 area, where telephone number prefixes have been rationed to phone companies for nearly two years.

The draft ruling represents a setback for Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles), who had urged the PUC to halt the overlay in 310 and consider alternatives. Knox could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

Under a plan adopted last year, a new area code, 424, was to be added to cover the same geographic region now served by 310. The 424 overlay was set to take effect July 17, but regulators postponed the code’s introduction to consider Knox’s objections.

The postponement came just weeks before the new area code’s planned launch, and after many phone companies had acquired 424 phone numbers for distribution.

Beginning in April, callers in the affected communities were required to dial 11 digits (1 plus the area code plus the seven-digit number) on all calls, even those within the same area code.

While there is no technical reason for using extra digits to call within the same area code, state regulators required it to ensure fair competition among rival phone companies. Since new phone companies will be issuing phone numbers with the new 424 area code in a region dominated by 310 numbers, their customers will have to dial 11 digits on most of their local calls--a powerful disincentive for customers to choose a competitor to Pacific Bell or GTE, the dominant carriers in the region.

Under Duque’s proposal, the PUC would push to recapture unused 310 phone numbers to be sure that new phone companies do not have only 424 phone numbers, a move that could clear the way for the commission to lift the 11-digit dialing requirement.

In addition to pushing the PUC to reconsider its plans for the 310 area, Knox has proposed legislation that would force the state to adopt number-conservation measures to slow the pace of code changes statewide.

Knox and other legislators have pushed hard to derail a planned overlay code in the 818 region.

To help alleviate the code proliferation in California, the PUC is seeking permission from the Federal Communications Commission to adopt new, more efficient ways to allocate phone numbers.

Under the current system, phone numbers are issued in blocks of 10,000 (an entire prefix), a wasteful system that often leaves phone companies with unused numbers. The FCC is expected to approve plans that would allow phone companies to acquire phone numbers in blocks of 1,000.