Area Codes Problems

Your June 23 editorial, “Dialing a Remedy,” was an accurate analysis of the phone number problem. It will cost tens of billions of dollars in the future to solve this problem if we do not deal with it now.

One minor correction is that dialing within 310 requires 11, and not 10 digits. Only 10 digits should be necessary, but Pacific Bell has not implemented the software changes.

Like the Y2K problem, phone companies, politicians, bureaucrats and regulators are all to blame for not getting involved until the 11th hour, and only then after the flurry of mail they received from concerned citizens. Those interested should visit the Web site https://www.stopoverlay.com for complete information on the subject.

STEVEN TEITELBAUM

President

Citizens Against the Overlay

Santa Monica

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Your editorial supports a move to cancel the 424/310 area code overlay and never impose another. Come on!

The telephone overlay is not a new concept. We’ve had overlays for years on the prefix level. Yet nobody complains about having to dial seven digits for every call--even when calling a number with the same prefix.

Why is there no outrage at having to dial one’s own prefix or having two or more different prefixes at the same residence or place of business? We’ve long since gotten used to overlaid prefixes and now, after 52 years of area codes, we ought to be used to the fact that a North American telephone number consists of 10 digits.

THOMAS D. BRATTER

Los Angeles