Telephone Numbers

Google Inc.'s hot new software enables users to make cheap international calls, consolidate multiple phone numbers into one voice mail account and get e-mailed transcripts of their voice messages. But on Tuesday, Apple Inc. declined to make the call for its iPhone users. The Cupertino, Calif., electronics giant refused to allow Google to distribute its Google Voice application on iTunes, shutting out iPhone users from easily tapping into the much-anticipated service.

In California, where celebrities, billionaires and the rest of us prize a little privacy at home, the price of going unlisted is going up, big-time. Though cellphone companies charge nothing for unlisted phone numbers, consumers with traditional telephones connected by wires are often paying nearly $25 a year to stay out of the phone book and directory assistance. That adds up when you consider all the other add-on charges on phone bills.

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.

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.

Shira Barlow had her new cellphone number for only two days when the flood of calls began. Birthday wishes, inquiries about locations for "in" parties, requests to get on guest lists at the hottest Los Angeles nightclubs. Most of the calls were placed between 2 and 4 a.m. on weekends. Some were annoying. Many involved slurred words. When the callers were told they had reached a UCLA college student, they refused to believe it. "Baby girl, how are you?" a man purred in a foreign accent.

Pressured by a lawsuit, Internet social network Facebook Inc. will adopt measures to prevent its 58 million members from sending text messages to recycled cellphone numbers. The settlement was announced Tuesday by attorneys for an Indiana woman who claimed Palo Alto-based Facebook had been profiting from text messages sent by its members after the intended recipients had given up the phone numbers. The lawsuit, filed by Lindsey Abrams of Patriot, Ind.

When the wrong numbers started flooding in last year, John Dickson didn't just hang up. Instead, he said "Ho ho ho" and solemnly heard requests for laptops and light sabers from children seeking Santa. Dickson, who runs a website promoting Santa Barbara attractions, can be reached at 1-800-SANTABARBARA (1-800-726-8222).

Krysten Robertson is in area-code denial -- and she's not alone. The Santa Monica resident's personal and professional life are centered in the 310 area code. Like others who call the Westside and South Bay home, she has little more than two weeks before callers are required to dial 1 plus the area code before a number, even for calls within the 310 boundaries. For Robertson, 28, that means reprogramming scores of numbers on her cellphone and work line.

For the second time in two years, the powerful telecommunications industry has blocked a consumer-oriented bill that would have barred companies from charging land-line customers for unlisted numbers. On Tuesday, state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) put on hold for this year a bill that would have eliminated monthly unlisted-number fees.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to require telemarketers to continue complying with the national do-not-call registry, which bars them from dialing more than 157 million telephone numbers. The commission's order implements a law that made the 5-year-old list permanent. The law, enacted in February, prevented registrations from automatically expiring this year. Without the extension, consumers would have had to register their numbers again to avoid unwanted sales calls.