[September 08, 2008]

Area code split woes mount in San Diego County

(North County Times (Escondido, CA) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 6--Estimates keep rising on the burden an upcoming area code split will impose on Camp Pendleton. The difficulties at the giant Marine base are the most serious aspect of a growing list of problems being revealed as the controversial split nears.

Ordered by the California Public Utilities Commission, the area code split covers all of San Diego County that is in the 760 area code. That area will be shifted to the new area code 442 -- due to take effect during a six-month period starting Nov. 8. However, the commission is reconsidering the decision under pressure of rising opposition.

Switching to a new area code requires the base to look at every aspect of its operations involving communications, which is pretty much everything, said Lt. Tom Garnett, a base spokesman.

"You notice something every time," Garnett said. "You look at the telephone books; those have to be changed. You look at the vast numbers of contacts you've collected ... In terms of finances and man-hours, it will be staggering."

For example, the base is now increasing its telephone numbers by 50 percent.

"We have 20,000 right now, and are in the process of ordering 10,000 more," Garnett said. Not only would existing numbers, but the new numbers would have to be changed to the new area code.

Marine Corps Community Services, a civilian service agency for Marines, would have to spend from $600,000 to $1 million making the change, Garnett said.

"It would be a logistical nightmare," Garnett said.

"There's a ton of little kids on base, we have a lot of child care programs," Garnett said. "We have at least 1,500 families that have phone contacts for two doctors, two parents, two emergency contact numbers. You worry about something falling through the cracks."

Counseling, commissaries, movie theaters and restaurants are also run by Marine Corps Community Services, Garnett said.

"They do a lot of really good stuff for the Marines and their families," Garnett said. "They put out deployment brochures, things to help spouses and children when their husbands and their wives when they're deployed . . . When you change the area code, you have to somehow alert these people that these things are changing, not to mention the cost of reprinting pretty much everything you've printed."

Garnett said the base is also concerned that overseas contacts might not hear of the change.

"All of a sudden, for a lot of people, it (would seem) like Camp Pendleton's not picking up the phone anymore," Garnett said.

Instead of a split, opponents are asking the commission to impose an "overlay" in the 760 region. New numbers would be assigned the new 442 area code; existing numbers would keep the existing 760 area code.

The base made its opposition public at a commission hearing Thursday in Carlsbad. Col. James B. Seaton, commander at Camp Pendleton, testified against the split at the crowded hearing.

Seaton told the commission the split would raise difficulties for the base's military mission, and the personal lives of its Marines and sailors, while they are engaged overseas. While the Marines can carry out the switch, Seaton said, he asked the commission to consider whether a split was really necessary.

A letter opposing the split was also submitted from the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a watchdog group that had previously taken no position on the split.

"Based upon the phone calls that our office has received since the unexpected decision was issued, Northern San Diego County residents are truly alarmed and discouraged by the seeming indifference demonstrated by this decision," stated the letter from Michael Shames, executive director of the group.

In a Friday interview, Shames said the commission ignored both the testimony and the professional advice of telephone carriers that an overlay was preferable to a split.

"The phone companies were telling them to do the overlay, the customers were telling them to do the overlay ... Who was pushing for the split?" Shames said. "Given the disruption that has occurred, I'm not quite sure what the commission was thinking."

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Copyright (c) 2008, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.
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