Area Code to Split?

An explosion of cell phones, faxes and other telecommunications
technology may force county residents in a few years to dial a
”
1
”
before calling a next-door neighbor.
Morgan Hill – An explosion of cell phones, faxes and other telecommunications technology may force county residents in a few years to dial a “1” before calling a next-door neighbor.

State utility regulators say that by the end of 2010, they may have to divide the region between Sunnyvale and South County, where the 408 area code is now king. And though it may not mean long-distance phone charges, it will mean dialing a “1” and a new three-digit prefix for previously “local” calls.

Carving a new area code out of the existing 408 region would force many residents to change business cards and stationary, while an alternative plan to “overlay” a second area code on the region could mean two different numbers assigned to people living on the same block.

The California Public Utilities Commission, the agency charged with monitoring area code changes, predicts that 408 numbers will be exhausted by the third quarter of 2010.  Before tackling area code changes in the Bay Area, the agency will address scheduled changes in Southern California area codes, starting as early as 2009.

Susan Carothers, spokeswoman for CPUC, said the agency must receive a go-ahead from federal regulators before proceeding with any changes to the 408 area code. 

“Times have changed dramatically in California,” she told MediaNews reporters last week. “We now have 37 million people. Everybody and their brother has a cell phone, a fax, a pager. Some have two or three telephone lines. They all require area codes and prefixes, so it’s no surprise that they would be running short.”

The 408 area code contains approximately 7.78 million useable telephone numbers, according to a 2001 report from CPUC. The commission, which at that time found that roughly half of the numbers had been used, was taking measures to “conserve” and recycle numbers in the face of a growing population hungry gobbling up numbers.

It’s not the first time state officials will have multiplied area codes.

In 1959, the 408 area code was carved out of the 415 area code, which covered Central California and was one of the first three area codes created in the state in 1947, according to the CPUC report. 

The 408 area code shrank in 1999 when San Benito County and most of Monterey and Santa Cruz counties were assigned the 831 area code, which is scheduled to run out of numbers in 2027. The 408 area code currently includes Santa Clara County south of Sunnyvale and Cupertino, and small portions of Alameda, Santa Cruz, and Stanislaus Counties.

While CPUC monitors the use of 10-digit phone numbers, the numbers are actually doled out to telecommunications companies by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator. Representatives from that agency could not be reached for comment before deadline.

The prospect of a phone change did not sit well with Marita Roth, manager of Christopher Travel in downtown Morgan Hill. While she said she could live with an 831 area code, she balked at the idea of an entirely new number.

“From a business standpoint, I think it’s a hardship because there would be expenses involved,” she said, adding: “Couldn’t they just add another digit to the end of the numbers?”