The Prefix Is In

To some people on the Westside and in the South Bay, 310 is more than just an area code.

It's a geographic marker -- one that many associate with wealth, glamour and the beach.

"It stirs up feeling of 'Ah, Ooh.' You always have great expectations," said Larry Steele, who with his partners recently christened their new Santa Monica restaurant 310 Lounge & Bistro. "It's a hot name."

It may soon be an unavailable name.

State officials are considering a plan that would create California's first area code overlay. If approved, new phone customers within the boundaries of 310 probably would receive a new area code: 424.

That means that all customers within the 310 would have to dial an area code before the number -- and that neighbors could have different area codes.

Though new to the state, there are nearly 50 area code overlays nationwide, including in New York City and 15 states. Atlanta alone has three area codes overlapping one another.

The overlay is the latest plan in a seven-year-long battle between the telephone industry and local communities over whether the 310 is running short on numbers and needs a new area code.

Phone providers and the California Public Utilities Commission insist that cellphones, fax machines, Blackberries, ATM and home computer modems are quickly devouring 310 numbers. Residents and businesses insist that there are enough numbers to go around and that providers are exaggerating the shortage.

The latest plan has met with concern across the largely upscale zone, which extends from the Palos Verdes Peninsula up the coast to Santa Monica and Malibu, then east through Brentwood, Westwood, Century City and Beverly Hills.

To critics, the 424 overlay would cause confusion, not to mention the inconvenience of dialing 11 digits for every call.

But many also fear that dual area codes would erase part of the region's identity.

"The area code is like your street address; you get attached to it," said Santa Monica resident Steve Chapek, 34, as he worked the counter at California Map & Travel Center. "If they keep adding area codes like that, you won't have any sense of a neighborhood."

Some go to great lengths to get a 310 area code, feeling it provides them a certain cachet even if they don't live within its boundaries.

Vonage, an Internet phone company that allows users to select 310 phone numbers regardless of where they live, said it has seen a particular run on numbers based in Beverly Hills.