Telephone Numbers

The judge in the Jerry Sandusky trial on Tuesday ordered prosecutors to turn over the telephone numbers and addresses of those who say they were sexually abused by the former Penn State football coach, so that the defense can seek them out before the trial. The ruling comes as both sides are fighting through the pretrial stage in the closely watched case, which is scheduled for court in mid-May. Sandusky, 68, is charged with more than 50 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years.

The 213 is now 323--but only in a doughnut-shaped area ringing downtown Los Angeles. The 818 was recently split, adding 626. And just this month, 805 lost part of its domain to 661. Keeping track of the region's ever-shifting area codes is just as confusing as it sounds--and relief from numbers shuffle is overdue, the City Council decided Wednesday.

Internet users who were burned by a scheme that surreptitiously connected their computers to telephone numbers for the country of Moldova will get $2.74 million in refunds for long-distance charges, the Federal Trade Commission said. The FTC said the refunds are part of two settlements it reached with several firms and individuals who used a supposedly free software program to connect more than 38,000 consumers to costly international phone numbers--in effect hijacking their computer modems.

Pacific Bell has scheduled a series of meetings to allow public discussion of plans for a new Orange County area code. The county is rapidly running out of telephone numbers, largely because of the proliferation of faxes, pagers and computer modems. To address this shortage, a new area code will be introduced in Orange County, possibly as soon as December 1997. There are three proposals for the new code, including two that involve splitting the county along geographic boundaries.

Moving to streamline its campus communications network, Cal State Northridge will convert its telephone numbers to a single prefix beginning today, the university has announced. The changeover process will begin at 5 p.m. and should be completed by 8 a.m. Monday. During that time, CSUN's five existing telephone prefixes--885, 700, 701, 717 and 407--will change to the brand-new prefix 677. Despite the new prefix, the last four digits of nearly all campus phone numbers will remain the same.

The costly and disruptive nationwide explosion of area codes has long been blamed on popular gadgets such as fax machines and wireless phones, but critics are now charging that the shortage of telephone numbers is largely artificial. Regulators in nearly half a dozen states are moving to impose moratoriums on new area codes out of concern that the burgeoning telephone industry is warehousing a vast reservoir of numbers instead of giving them to new customers.

State regulators unveiled eight possible ways to divide up the 818 area code Wednesday, hoping the many choices would mollify telephone users concerned the change will be costly and annoying. Two dozen Burbank residents attended the first of four public meetings on impending changes to the 818 area code, which has covered the San Fernando Valley, Agoura Hills, Glendale and La Canada Flintridge since 1984.

Starting early Saturday, there will be more numbers to dial. Even to call the neighbor across the street. At least in some neighborhoods. Like the one in Costa Mesa that finds itself split along the dividing line for the old area code--714--and the new one of 949. "What a pain," said Costa Mesa homeowner Joe Banning, summing up the feelings of residents who are now--quite literally--divided by the switch.

As Los Angeles County prepares for the addition of yet another area code, the public is being asked to help decide how the new code will be applied. The new 626 code will be the county's eighth and fold into the areas covered by the current 818 area code, said Paula Olivares, spokeswoman for the private telecommunications advisory group that has been working with the California Public Utilities Commission on the plan. "Telephone numbers are just being used up at a tremendous rate . . .