Official Wants to Hang Up on Area Code Overlays
State Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) said Friday he would seek a moratorium on new telephone area codes, aimed at preventing a code split or overlay for the 818 region in the San Fernando Valley.
Knox introduced a bill this week that would require the state’s Public Utilities Commission to recycle retired numbers and try other strategies to meet the burgeoning demand for new telephone numbers for fax machines, pagers, and other equipment.
The commission generally assigns new area codes by dividing geographic areas. Another approach, which is just beginning in California, is to “overlay†a new area code over a region, leaving the existing area code in place and giving new numbers the new code.
Both the county Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles City Council recently endorsed the overlay concept--but Knox is seeking alternative solutions. He said overlays will still cause confusion, because a single business could eventually wind up with multiple area codes for different telephones as the new numbers are put into effect.
“The point is to hold the PUC’s feet to the fire to make them seriously consider an alternative to area code splits or overlays,†Knox said.
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