Sometimes it pays to procrastinate.
As Oct. 2--the deadline for the dreaded 11-digit dialing--rapidly approaches, 408 area code residents who put off reprogramming phones will be rewarded for their time-defying ways. The overlay area code may be dead.
Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission told telephone companies in the San Jose area to put a hold on the unpopular area code plan. Now the commission has until January to decide whether to suspend the overlay, in which a second area code is placed on top of an existing area code, mandating 11-digit dialing.
The new 669 area code was scheduled to begin on Jan. 8, 2000.
The CPUC's decision comes after Pacific Bell and GTE Corp. asked the state regulators to delay implementing 11-digit dialing.
"For our customers' convenience, we really wanted the CPUC to delay implementing the 1 plus 10 digits," said Steve Getzug, a spokesperson for Pacific Bell. "We saw with the 310 area code it took some education to get people to understand that they have to dial the 1 plus 10 digits, and we wanted to avoid that customer confusion if the CPUC ultimately decides to stick to seven-digit dialing."
After feeling the heat from Gov. Gray Davis and state legislators, and ordinary citizens who didn't want to dial the extra four digits, the Public Utilities Commission voted on Sept. 16 to kill a similar overlay for the 310 area code in Los Angeles. Los Angeles residents currently must dial 11 digits for every call; however, the commission's vote marks the return to seven-digit dialing for local calls.
"The disruption generated by implementing 11-digit dialing in the 310 area code demonstrated the hardships of that requirement," said Commissioner Joel Z. Hyatt, who drafted the decision to stop the Los Angeles overlay. "The information gained from that experience prompts us to stop the mandatory 11-digit dialing in 408 before it begins."
The decision comes after a two-year dilemma about the phone number shortage. which is caused by the onslaught of modem lines, wireless phones, fax machines and pagers that continue to devour phone numbers throughout the state.
To slow the impending number shortage, the commission has directed phone companies to distribute numbers in blocks of 1,000. Currently, numbers are assigned to phone companies in blocks of 10,000 even if they don't need that many. According to the commission's estimates, only 35 million of the 180 million phone numbers for the state are being used.
Phone companies must also return unused blocks of 1,000 so they may be redistributed.
The proposed overlay would affect San Jose, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Milpitas, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Campbell, Los Gatos, Lexington Hills, San Antonio Valley, Morgan Hill and Gilroy. It would also affect small parts of San Mateo, Stanislaus, Merced and Santa Cruz counties.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
