Saratoga News PAC Bell pushes an overlay zone to resolve 408 area code split Mayor, Chamber executive say they favor the solution Public hearings planned By Jeff Kearns Pacific Bell has started lobbying in favor of an overlay zone as a way of avoiding a geographical split of the 408 area code. Instead of drawing a line through the middle of Saratoga, an overlay zone would leave existing numbers in the area code intact, while new phone lines would be assigned to the new code. While the overlay zone would eliminate the need for deciding where to draw the dividing lines across the current zone--always a thorny issue--it would mean that all residents of both the old and new area codes would need to dial 11 digits for all local calls, even those within the same area code. Also, homes and businesses would have new phone lines assigned to the new area code, which would mean that one home could have two area codes. Leon Beauchman, Pac Bell's director of external affairs, held a meeting Aug. 6 to build support for the plan among mayors, city officials and chambers of commerce in the South Bay. "The original plan calls for a geographical split, then 12 to 18 months later doing an overlay zone," Beauchman said. "The new plan would move up the overlay zone." Doing so, he said, would mean that South Bay residents wouldn't have to adjust to two new area codes in two years. Mayor Don Wolfe represented Saratoga at the meeting. "We're going to petition the PUC to delay any implementation of a new area code for our area until an overlay can be implemented, rather than suffer with splitting the town with two codes and then eventually having a new area code in place by 2001," Wolfe said. Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sheila Arthur is also pushing the PUC to allow the overlay solution. Arthur signed an Aug. 21 letter to the PUC drafted by the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, which was also signed by nine other South Bay Chamber directors. Arthur called the geographical split "a real inconvenience. ... We should all be very aware of the implication or complication of changing our area code and the impact on the business community. It could create a big loss of business and inconvenience to customers." Pac Bell wants the Public Utilities Commission to reconsider a ban on new overlays before the year 2000, and the company would like to hold public meetings to gauge public support for an overlay. According to PUC's Risa Hernandez, who is the project manager for Area Code Relief, the commissioners are expected to make a decision sometime in the next 60 days. Currently, the only overlay area code that has been approved in the state is in western Los Angeles, where the 310 area code will start to share its territory with the 424 area code next April, when manda-tory 11-digit dialing begins. Hernandez says that overlays are intended to reduce what she calls "shrinking area-code syndrome," or cases in which it no longer makes sense to keep carving up the same area code. Eventually, the commission will make a decision based on whether that's the case with 408, Hernandez said. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, August 26, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.