Panel Bows to Protests, Kills 310 Overlay

Bowing to pressure from consumers and politicians, the state Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to kill the 310 area code overlay sought by telephone companies, halting 11-digit dialing for local calls.

Area code within area codes, overlays have been accepted with only scattered protests in New York City, Chicago, Maryland and elsewhere. But on the Westside and in the South Bay, the proposal triggered protests. San Fernando Valley residents also rose up against a similar proposal for the 818 area code.

“This is a huge victory for 310,” said Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles), who headed legislation making it harder for new area codes, including overlays, to be implemented. “The residents of 310 played a role in changing state and national law in this area. My hope is that area codes will last as long as a decade under the new system.”

When an overlay is created, all new phone numbers in that area get a new area code, while existing numbers keep the old one. But all callers in the zone must dial area codes for all calls, even local ones.

The commission’s action, approved on a 3-2 vote, halts the 424 area code overlay that was scheduled to take effect Oct. 16 in the 310 region. It also requires that 11-digit dialing for local calls in the 310 area--implemented in April in anticipation of the overlay--be rescinded within 60 days.

In addition, the commission adopted conservation measures designed to reduce the need for overlays or splits.

The decision was a defeat for telecommunications companies, including Pacific Bell, which maintains that the overlay is needed to handle the surging demand for phone numbers. Nationwide, the need for new phone numbers has escalated to feed a seemingly insatiable demand for cellular phones, faxes, modems and other phone lines.

On Wednesday, Gov. Gray Davis had urged the commission to rescind the overlay. The same day, the Federal Communications Commission granted the commission permission to allot numbers in blocks of 1,000, instead of 10,000, and to force telephone companies to return unused numbers.

Also, the state Legislature last week approved AB 406, which puts a greater burden of proof on telephone companies seeking to create area codes or overlays.

Supporters say that the reforms will slow the pace of area code changes such as those proposed in the San Fernando Valley, Orange County and the Bay Area.

“As soon as the technical changes can be made, people will not have to dial 11 digits to call their next-door neighbor,” said Commissioner Joel Z. Hyatt, who proposed the rollback. “We have put in play a process whereby all the people of California will benefit from a logical and rational numbering system.”

Residents and business owners cheered the decision.

“That will be great. Now I will be able to dial faster,” said Rosa Gonzalez, an employee at Culver City-based Studio Roja, a jewelry and gift design studio.

Richard Dore, a spokesman for El Segundo-based Hughes Electronics, said: “It’s going to make everything a lot easier and it might even increase productivity because there’s a lot of communication [requiring 11-digit dialing] within parts of Hughes.”

Telephone companies said it will take about six to eight weeks to eliminate 11-digit dialing.

“If this is the will of the [commission], we will follow the order. Pacific Bell will do its part and it will be incumbent upon all of the carriers to be involved to achieve meaningful long term results,” said Pacific Bell spokesman Steve Getzug.

Political observers said the activism on the Westside played a large role in the overlay’s defeat, as did a series of opinion columns by Robert Scheer in the Santa Monica and Westside editions of Our Times, a community newspaper published by the Los Angeles Times.

Steven Teitelbaum, a Santa Monica plastic surgeon who launched an Internet Web site, www.stopoverlay.com, and other consumer activists maintain that phone companies are hoarding telephone numbers for competitive reasons. They say that by allotting numbers in blocks of 1,000 instead of 10,000, and by requiring phone companies to return unused numbers, fewer splits and overlays will be needed.

According to the commission, there are 180 million numbers allocated to phone companies statewide, but only 35 million are in active use.

Telecommunications companies maintain that the need is not artificial, but has been fueled by the demand for phone lines--not just by consumers, but by businesses--including computer connections for bank automated teller machines and credit card approval systems.

At the end of 1998, more than 70 million phone numbers were being used by wireless phones nationwide, up 25% in one year.

To meet that demand, state regulators in the past would split off new area codes--creating 818, 310, 562, 323 and 626 out of the 213 area.

More recent, however, major phone companies including Pacific Bell and GTE have supported the overlays as an alternative, saying that they are less disruptive.

But under FCC rules designed to ensure fair competition among phone companies, all callers in an overlay zone must dial area codes for local calls--a point that became a lightning rod for criticism over the inconvenience of 11-digit dialing.

Steven Hansen, a Lakewood attorney who is fighting a proposed new area code for the 562 region of Los Angeles County, said he hopes that the decision for 310 will trigger delays in new codes throughout the state.

“I hope that the decision by the [commission] becomes an interim blueprint that will be followed by the whole state over the next one to 1 1/2 years,” Hansen said. “I hope it benefits me in that I won’t have to lose my [562] area code.”