Area Codes

The proliferation of area codes is blamed on the dramatic growth of the cellular telephone business. Why not assign all cell phones their own area codes and leave the hard-wired phones alone? The new rate structure for cell phones virtually eliminates roaming charges, so the area code for a given cell phone is immaterial. RAY UHLER Tustin Ranch

No teenager wants to face the dilemma baseball standout Kyle Raubinger encountered last month. Raubinger, a senior third baseman at Arroyo Grande High, was scheduled to attend a final tryout for the Area Code Games , the most prestigious event of the summer. But two days earlier, his father, David, suffered a stroke and was in critical condition. "I called the main guy and told him I might not be able to go," Raubinger said. His father was transferred to a hospital in Santa Barbara, the same city where the Area Code tryouts were taking place, so Raubinger decided to finish what he had started.

State utility officials voted Thursday to overlay a new area code in the San Fernando Valley -- an action that follows a decade of emotional debate and effectively ends the Valley's longtime reputation as the land of the 818. The decision by the California Public Utilities Commission will also add a new area code to a number of communities north of San Diego. Beginning in May 2009, all new telephone numbers issued in the 818 area will take a 747 area code.

In L.A., we define ourselves (and each other) however we can. Consider what your Prius or your Hummer says about your politics. How about your choice of hand-held cellular device -- is it a BlackBerry or an iPhone? Even your phone number itself: If you can be reached at 310, say the kids in my afternoon carpool, you're rich. At 626, your parents are probably Republicans. As for the 818, "That's, like, the Valley," says one of the girls, slipping into dialect.

State regulators decided Thursday to create an area code overlay in the 714 section of Orange County, establishing the second such blended telephone zone in California. The California Public Utilities Commission's 5-0 vote means that, starting late next summer, callers in the current 714 area will need to dial 10 or 11 digits to complete a local call. Existing telephone customers adding new numbers might wind up with phones in different area codes.

818. For more than two decades, those three numbers have served as a point of pride for San Fernando Valley residents and occasionally used with derision by people on the other side of the Hollywood Hills. The question now is whether 747 has the same ring. State regulators said Thursday that they intend to create a new area code for the San Fernando Valley by either assigning all new phone customers to the 747 area code or dividing the 818 in two.

LIKE body fat percentages and box office grosses, area codes are one more metric by which Southern Californians define themselves. The broad stereotypes (and are there any other kinds when you're lumping millions of people together?) include the old-school, loft-dwelling 213; the knit-cap-wearing, hipster-vegan 323; the moneyed, three-picture-deal 310; and the oft-maligned, suburban punch line of the 818. Which brings us to the 424.

Running short of numbers, state regulators are proposing a new area code for Orange County or even adding an overlay zone in which neighbors could end up in different area codes. State officials say the supply of 714 area code phone numbers will be exhausted sometime in 2008. The 714 area code -- which serves northern and western Orange County -- was created in 1951 after it was split from the 213 zone. The proposed 657 area code would be Orange County's fourth.

Residents of the 310, get your fingers ready. Starting today, everyone who lives within the boundaries of the 310 area code will have to dial 11 digits -- 1 plus 310, then the seven-digit number -- when making a local call. The new dialing procedure is another step toward implementation of the state's first area code overlay. Service providers are scheduled to begin distributing numbers with the new 424 code Aug. 26. Existing customers will keep their 310 numbers.

AT LAST, someone has stepped in to end the foaming-at-the-mouth insanity of Southern California's real estate boom. Fed chief Ben Bernanke and his Amazing Jumping Interest Rates (watch them leap!) couldn't do it. The "America's Most Overvalued Real Estate" blog couldn't do it (as of Wednesday, it had disappeared entirely). But make way for the state Public Utilities Commission, an organization whose name practically guarantees a bad time.

Re "Area Code Overlay Is Pushing Buttons," July 11 The Times really dialed a wrong number. Our previous efforts to defeat the overlay were not to protect our "vaunted" area code but to avoid dialing four extra digits each and every time we pick up a phone. It is totally untrue that residents objected to an area code split because of petty prestige issues. At the time of the earlier, unsuccessful effort at an overlay, the phone companies stated that businesses opposed the extra expense of changed phone numbers.