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Area code split approved
(North County Times (Escondido, CA) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Apr. 25--Ending a nine-year struggle by North Countians to keep the 760 telephone area code, the California Public Utilities Commission voted in San Francisco on Thursday to assign the region to the new area code of 442. For those whose memories of the hassles of going through the last area code change has dimmed, it's time to get prepared for the time-consuming work.
Ordering new stationery, notifying friends and business partners of the new number and reprogramming cell phones and fax machines are among the chores that must be completed over the next 12 months.
The vast 760 area code territory was created in 1997 with the three-way split of the 619 area code among 619, 858 and 760. Now the 760 will itself be split under the plan, first proposed in 1999.
Its western portion, which extends from coastal North County to Julian and Borrego, will get the 442 area code. The remaining portion, which extends through California's eastern desert region, will stay with 760.
There's little reason to doubt the need for a new area code. According to a commission report, the 760 area code will run out of numbers in the third quarter of 2009.
With the split, North County will have enough new phone numbers to last for about 14 years, the commission estimates.
Of course, North County could have been allowed to keep 760. But commissioners reasoned that the mostly urban area is already used to dealing with multiple area codes, and would feel the least pain.
The switch will take place over the next 15 months. First, over a six-month period, callers will be notified of the impending change. Then under a second six-month period, callers can use either the 760 or 442 area code under what's called "permissive dialing."
After the end of permissive dialing 12 months from now, the 760 number will no longer work in North County. For three months following, a recorded announcement will inform callers they must dial the 442 area code.
The 4-1 vote came with little discussion. The commission, which has held several public hearings and taken hundreds of comments on proposals to deal with the depletion of numbers in the 760 area code.
Commissioner Timothy Simon voted no, while Commissioners John Bohn, Rachelle Chong, Dian Grueneich and Michael Peevey voted in favor. Bohn voted by teleconference from Knoxville, Tenn.
Commission staff members had considered four plans, three involving splits of the area code and one to "overlay" the new area code. The overlay would have added the 442 area code for new numbers in the existing area code's territory.
Simon said he favored an overlay as being less troublesome to existing telephone customers.
In the end, the issue revolved around who would be inconvenienced least by being forced to adopt a new area code.
North County businesspeople have said they had already been subjected to an area code change with the 619 split, and would like to keep their area code this time around.
The change will be time-consuming and expensive, said Paula Barksdale, a real estate broker and owner of Oceanside-based Barksdale Properties.
"I just heard about it. I was not pleased at all," Barksdale said, describing the negative effect on her business as "huge." The change was particularly inopportune, Barksdale said, because she has just moved. In February, she had ordered new printed materials -- with the 760 area code.
"I had bought thousands of dollars worth of stationery, and it's all going to be gone now," Barksdale said. "Faxes have their phone numbers... even labels. I just bought new labels. It was $700 just to do that." And the cost isn't all that's troublesome, Barksdale said.
"From a business point of view, it confuses people. People may call me who haven't called in years, be they clients or personal friends, and they're not (going to be) aware of the change of number."
But Carlsbad-based 760 Media Inc., an advertising agency, will benefit from the area code change, said President Jeff Donnelley. "It's going to make us look more established... It just gives us credibility," Donnelley said. "We've been in North County for 10 years. We can say we go back before the change."
Most of the comments from North County businesspeople were negative, however. Despite their urgings, commissioners accepted the staff's argument that it made more sense to keep the sparsely populated desert areas in the same area code, while the populous and fast-growing San Diego region is used to having different area codes.
Commissioner Chong said it was appropriate to assign the new area code to the western part of the 760 including North County, because that's where the demand is.
"This part of the region has experienced very high growth and high demand for numbers," Chong said. "This has contributed to this projected exhaust(ion) of 760."
Speaking just after the vote at the commission meeting, Commissioner Peevey said he agreed with Chong's reasoning.
"There's a very large region that's keeping the 760 number, and is somewhat economically all part of the same area," Peevey said. "When I go from my house to UCLA through four different area codes in the space of 30 minutes to 45 minutes driving time. That's a different situation than all the area from Imperial (County) up to Bridgeport," the areas left in the 760 area code.
While objective standards play into the commission's decisions, political motives are also present, said Michael Shames, executive director of the Utility Consumer Action Network, a San Diego-based watchdog group.
"I expect that they based their decisions upon technical considerations, but ultimately, these decisions are largely political," Shames said. Shames said he was speaking in general terms, because UCAN did not get involved in the area code decision.
The Public Utilities Commission can be contacted at (415) 703-2782 or on the Web at http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/contactus/.
To see more of the North County Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nctimes.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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