Too Many Area Codes!

Just read on the California Public Utilities Commission website about the approval of 2 more area codes in Southern California. This brings SoCal's total to 19 area codes. :loony:

The CPUC approved an overlay of Area Code 818 (San Fernando Valley) with Area Code 747. This will formally begin next year.

They also announced Area Code 760 will be split, with only the San Diego County portion moving to the new 442 code. The sparsely populated desert areas (like El Centro, Palm Springs, and Death Valley) will remain 760. The transition phase of the split should begin later this year, with the formal split occurring in 2009.

Both come on the heels of the addition of overlay 657 to Area Code 714 in northern Orange County, which is already in progress.

So this is how it looks:

Greater Los Angeles (16) - 213, 310, 323, 424, 562, 626, 657, 661, 714, 747, 760, 805, 818, 909, 949, 951.

San Diego County (3) - 442, 619, 858

The biggest irony is the fact that ALL of these area codes are descendants of 213, once the only area code in SoCal, back when area codes were first created (in 1947).

I'll say one thing, life is never boring in Souhern California...

 

I can't remember the last time I dialed just 7 digits. I've moved around several times over the past decade and have never changed my original cell number (310) since I got it in 1994. I have a Vonage number in (212), so 11-digit dialing is all I know. Even my T-Mobile and AT&T numbers are in different area codes (213 and 818). I dial 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx for every number now, even if it happens to be in the same area code as the number I'm calling from. I've gotten used to it.

One thing I'm happy about is the fact that my 310 and 818 numbers are safe, thanks to overlays. Otherwise they would have changed if there had been a geographical area code split instead of an overlay.

 

Larry was joking. 213 numbers are readily available with cell carriers and VoIP providers as well. He was just referring to the small geographic footprint the code now has compared to what it used to be. It only covers Downtown L.A., which isn't a shoe box, but it also isn't huge either.

213 used to be the "it" code among the trendy set in L.A., now it's a shadow of it's former self, thanks to a ton of splits over the years. What hasn't and won't change is the fact that 213 is the patriarch code for all in Southern California. From it's genesis is where all other codes were born...

213's child 310 is apparently the "it" code now...

 

They probably forget they're not in their local calling area...You would think they'd know this, especially if they're out of state.

 

Yeah, it's like that in some areas here. Some parts have changed 4 to 5 times. It's getting ridiculous, but unfortunately, it's a sign of the times. Technology in the modern age...

 

With the introduction of the new 442 area code in San Diego County, the people in the affected area are changed for the fourth time and it will be their fifth different code in the 62 years since area codes were established :

213 (1947-1951) > 714 (1951-1982) > 619 (1982-1997) > 760 (1997-2009) > 442 (2009 on).

I wonder how long 442 will last...

 

Quint, were you living in No. Fla. when 850 split from 904?

It's interesting to note that all of Florida used to be 305. So all current area codes in Florida are descendants of 305, which now only covers Miami-Dade county and the Keys. Of course it shares Miami-Dade with overlay 786 now.

Florida's had some convoluted and bizarre area code switches over the years, like the non-contiguous 386 code and the odd 407/321 overlay in Orlando, with only 321 in Brevard County.

And by the way whose brilliant idea (the one who decides which area code number an area will get) was it to place overlay code 754 with Broward County's 954??? How much more similar do the numbers have to be? Weird...

 

Yep, Chicagoland is beginning to look like SoCal too.

 

Whoever assigns the numbers apparently doesn't look at the codes already existing in a particular area. The North Georgia and Broward county anomalies are but two examples of some of the idiocy of code assignments.

South Carolina is another one with all 3 of their codes beginning with "8". Central S. Carolina kept the original 803 code, but the eastern half got 843, and the western area got 864. How is that for confusing??? Plus the western part of North Carolina, bordering S. Carolina, is 828!!! Next to 828 to the north is 865 serving Knoxville, Tennessee! How many more freakin' 8 codes can you have next to each other? Ridiculous.

Oh well, that's life (or red tape)...

 

I remember those days too. Having been born and raised in the Los Angeles area, I've seen it all.

I remember when it was just 213, 714, and 805. Then came 619 (which separated Orange County from San Diego). 818 followed a few years later. Once the 1990s arrived, all area code hell broke out and its been insanity since.

Now all you have to do is go 20 to 30 miles, in any direction, and you're in a different code.

This is what it is here now in Greater Los Angeles (and a little beyond):

213 - Central Downtown Los Angeles
310 - Malibu, Beverly Hills, LAX, San Pedro/L.A. Harbor
323 - Los Angeles (Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, Eagle Rock), Montebello, Watts
424 - Overlay of 310
562 - Long Beach, Downey, Whittier, Seal Beach, Cerritos
626 - San Gabriel Valley (Pasadena, West Covina, Alhambra, Arcadia, Glendora, City of Industry)
657 - Overlay of 714 (Implementation in progress)
661 - Santa Clarita, Lancaster, The Grapevine, Bakersfield
714 - Northern Orange County (Anaheim, Brea, Huntington Beach, Orange, part of Santa Ana)
747 - Overlay of 818 (Implementation in 2009)
760 - Victorville, Barstow, Palm Springs, El Centro, Blythe, Needles, Death Valley
805 - Ventura County (Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Ventura, Oxnard), Santa Barbara
818 - San Fernando Valley (Encino, Northridge, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood), Burbank, Glendale, La Canada-Flintridge
909 - SW San Bernardino County (San Bernardino, Ontario, Redlands, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Big Bear Lake, Lake Arrowhead), Pomona
949 - Southern Orange County (Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente, Mission Viejo, San Juan Capistrano)
951 - Western Riverside County (Riverside, Temecula, Corona, Murrietta, Banning, Beaumont, Hemet, March AFB)

San Diego has what's left of 619, plus 858, and the soon to be implemented 442 (currently 760).