Los Gatos Weekly-Times

New area code for South Bay phones could change local prefixes

PUC meeting scheduled this week at Town Hall

Who will keep 408 code?

By Jeff Kearns

Los Gatos may have to give up its place in 408 next year and, under one plan currently being considered, could potentially wind up with two area codes within the town limits.

The South Bay's area code is almost out of numbers, thanks to an exploding telecom industry and skyrocketing consumer demand for more phone lines.

Officials are proposing relief plans for what will remain of the 408 area code after Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties begin their transition to the 831 area code in July. Four alternatives have been identified, down from a total of 15.

The California Public Utilities Commission, which has the final say in picking a plan, is holding a public meeting at Los Gatos Town Hall Thursday, April 23, from 1 to 4 p.m. Representatives from the telecom industry will also be on hand.

Another meeting will be held Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the Morgan Hill City Hall.

The boundaries are expected to be finalized sometime this summer. The new area code's number has not yet been determined.

One plan would leave downtown San Jose, Santa Clara, Campbell and Cupertino in 408 and assign a new code to the remainder of Santa Clara County. A second would keep the same boundaries but give the 408 designation to the rest of the county.

The boundary of this division roughly follows along the northern limits of Los Gatos but cuts in and out of the town. Some neighborhoods between Blossom Hill Road and Los Gatos-Almaden Road would be divided, along with parts of the La Rinconada area near Highway 85.

A third plan would split the county into three areas, with a code going to northeast San Jose, Alum Rock and Milpitas.

The fourth option under consideration would split the county and create an overlay zone, where existing 408 numbers would keep their code, but any new numbers assigned to the area would get a new code. In an overlay zone, a home or business could wind up with two area codes by adding new lines. Anyone in an overlay zone would have mandatory 10-digit dialing, even if they were calling their own area code.

Only one overlay zone is currently planned in the state, for the 310 area code on the west side of Los Angeles.

All four alternatives would leave the city of Monte Sereno whole, but Saratoga would almost certainly be bisected. Area codes can only be drawn along rate-area boundaries, which are dictated by the architecture of the telephone lines themselves.

The 408 area code was originally not expected to be split again until 2001, but demand has been far greater than expected, and now 408 looks like it will be used up by the second quarter of 1999, according to Risa Hernandez, Public Utilities Commission project manager for area code relief. Each area code can support 7.9 million lines. Santa Clara County has a population of 1.6 million.

The high demand for more phone lines is a nationwide trend, fueled by new technology and sweeping changes in the telecom industry, she says.

"We live differently today because so many people have pagers, cell phones, and second lines, and all that puts a heavy demand on phone numbers," Hernandez explained.

The telecommunications reforms passed by Congress in 1996 also opened markets formerly served by one company to competition among several providers--and each new company needs a new set of prefixes, whether it provides long distance, cellular, paging or other services.

The alternative solutions were drawn up by the California/Nevada Code Administration, which is currently being handed over from Pacific Bell to Lockheed Martin.

The CNCA began as a division of Pacific Bell when that company was by far the largest provider of phone service in the region. But now that the field is crowded with competitors, the FCC has ordered Pacific Bell to give up the CNCA and transfer it to a division of Lockheed Martin, which was selected by the federal government from a pool of applicants to take over the North American Numbering Plan Administration, started by AT&T in 1947 to assign area codes.

Joe Cook, a senior area code relief planner at Lockheed Martin, says that it's difficult to find the best plan among the various proposals, but his goal is to look at which communities are closely related and choose accordingly.

The public also has a voice in the process, he adds. "We want to get the public to come out and see the proposed plans," he says. "It's an excellent opportunity for them to see the proposed changes and give their input."

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