Telephone Industry Southern California

In a decision that could change the way telecommunications companies operate in California, a state Senate committee has approved legislation that would rescind the controversial 310 area code overlay and ban future area code splits. The Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee voted 8 to 1 on Tuesday to approve the Area Code Relief Act (AB 818).

A fire at a Downtown Los Angeles Pacific Bell switching facility crippled the city's phone service early Tuesday, blocking millions of calls, knocking out many appeals for emergency service, disrupting businesses and shutting down automated teller machines throughout the city.

A fire at a Downtown Los Angeles Pacific Bell switching facility crippled the city's phone service early Tuesday, blocking millions of calls, knocking out many appeals for emergency service, disrupting businesses and shutting down automated teller machines throughout the city.

General Telephone Co. of California said Wednesday that it plans to trim 1,100 of its present 22,000 jobs and change its corporate name in the coming year. Coincidentally, Pacific Telesis reported that about 3,000 managers at Pacific Bell and about 30 at the parent company have accepted an early retirement incentive program and will leave their jobs Dec. 31. That management-thinning program was announced last September and, spokeswoman Diane Olberg said, exceeded expectations by more than 500.

Jeffrey R. Hultman, president and chief executive of PacTel Cellular, likes to tell his employees that they are pioneers in a "100-year business." Taking a long-term view keeps a decision such as which of two competing cellular phone technologies to adopt from seeming quite so daunting, he says. Even so, Hultman and other cellular industry executives are grappling with the biggest technological transition in the industry's brief history.

For months now, Pacific Bell has been digging up portions of Los Angeles in the name of the future. "We promise. It'll be worth it," read the fliers distributed to thousands of residents. In exchange for the noise and inconvenience, the selected Southland neighborhoods were to be some of the first in the nation to get hooked up to the fabled information superhighway. Then the future got put on hold.

Beginning this Saturday, four residents of a small desert border town will get the phone service they have been denied for the past 10 months, thanks to a settlement of their federal lawsuit against Nevada Bell. And another 39 residents and businesses in communication-starved Sandy Valley, Calif. will get phone service beginning Feb. 15, provided by Pacific Bell under the complicated legal settlement.

With the burgeoning Inland Empire quickly running out of phone numbers, a new area code--909--is debuting this morning in the greater Riverside, San Bernardino and Pomona metropolitan areas. At 12:01 a.m., the new code will begin replacing the 714 area code for residents and businesses in western and central Riverside and San Bernardino counties and eastern Los Angeles County.

Dressed in her blue-green nightgown, an oxygen tube running to her nose, 85-year-old Rose Rosequist reaches for a walkie-talkie at her side, which responds with a scratchy electronic squawk. The ailing great-grandmother, perched on an oversized BarcaLounger in the living room of her double-wide trailer, reaches out to touch someone. This time it's her son, Layne, who's just a mile or so down the road: "Son, this is your mom, come in please." "Go ahead, Mom," comes a garbled reply.

Pacific Bell on Wednesday unveiled its latest bilingual service, a Vietnamese center to help customers get service for what is arguably the most important appliance in any household--the telephone. In a move that's one part humanitarian and one part aggressive marketing, the company will reach out and touch the more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees living in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.