"It's a cultural thing," said Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schulz. "If you are an actor or an agent, you want to have a 310, because 310 is synonymous with the area of Santa Monica, Brentwood, Beverly Hills -- all these places that have cachet in Los Angeles. When you have that 310 number, it says something about you."
Indeed, the founders of a post-production visual effects company decided to keep its name 310 Studios, President Billy Jones said, even though its offices opened in Burbank, in the 818 area code.
Area codes have long been a cultural identifier in Southern California, for better or worse. In the movie "Swingers," characters rated date prospects on the virtue of their area codes (they found the 310 more impressive than the San Fernando Valley's 818). Radio deejays and TV shows frequently poke fun at the Inland Empire's 909 area code, associating it with the unsophisticated boondocks.
Some experts roll their eyes at the passionate efforts to keep the 310 area code the way it is.
A. Michael Noll, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, said some residents in tony enclaves wrongly believe the area code makes some profound statement about where they live and who they are.
To them, the area code "has a lot of social status," he said.
In reality, the 310 takes in some working-class communities, including Compton, Lawndale, Hawthorne and Lynwood.
Noll said that when the phone company in the 1950s introduced the current seven-digit numerical dialing, it received protests from people who preferred the old system, which used names like "Webster" and "Olive" to denote the first few digits of a phone number. "They felt some prefixes noted a more upscale neighborhood," he said.
It's the very popularity of the 310 that is fueling the overlay plan. The PUC said about 5.32 million numbers have been used or are otherwise unavailable, and that 1.97 million are left.
Until recently, phone carriers have wanted the state to split the 310 -- letting the Westside keep its area code and giving 424 to the South Bay. But faced with opposition, the companies have now asked the utilities commission to consider the overlay.
Under the proposal, which the PUC is considering, the overlay would be automatically triggered whenever the number of unused 310 prefixes -- sets of 10,000 available phone numbers -- dips to six sets. There are currently eight unused prefixes, though officials aren't sure how long it would take to drop to six.
