Hello! Hello?! "Area code crisis" calling.

But don't hang up. There's a solution.With California splitting the San Francisco Bay area code Monday - the first of three planned divisions in the state's near future - only five unused area codes are left for the rest of North America.

However, a revised area code system adding 640 authorized three-digit area codes to the existing 152 is due in mid-1995, just in time to save the day.

"We do have a short-term area code crisis because we're running out, but we're prepared for change," said Cynthia Lucenius, media relations manager for Bellcore, which assists the nation's seven regional telephone companies.

"The thing is, in 1960 or even 1970 no one really envisioned this problem. Now, a lot of homes have two phone lines and new businesses open and, of course, all the new technology is taking up the access lines."

Blame it on population growth and 30 million Californians' love affair with the telephone, facsimile machines, pagers and computers that have voracious appetites for telephone access lines.

California, which got its first area code for Los Angeles - 213 - in 1947, has a record 10 area codes but soon will have 13. More than two dozen states, including Utah, have only one area code.

In the San Francisco Bay area, communities east of the inlet - Oakland, Berkeley and all of Contra Costa and Alameda counties - will switch from the 415 area code to 510, nicknamed the "five-and-dime.

On Nov. 2 in Southern California, the 213 area code will split for the third time, making Los Angeles the only city with three area codes. Areas to the south and west of downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood will become 310. The area north of Los Angeles was assigned the 818 area code in 1984.

In November 1992, the 714 area code for Orange County and parts of San Diego County will split. A new 909 area code will cover western and central Riverside County, San Bernardino County and eastern Los Angeles County, Pacific Bell says.

Elsewhere in the nation, Maryland will split with the western half keeping 301 and the Baltimore area becoming 410.

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And in New York City, the telephone company expects to create a 917 area code sometime in 1993 to overlap some parts of Manhattan, now 212.

Bellcore says the five unused area codes are 210, 810, 910, 706 and 905, the last two just imported from south of the border where they were used for foreign access until a recent Mexico dialing change.

More area codes are needed because telephone number duplications are possible after more than 7 million seven-digit combinations are assigned to each one, and 30 percent are reserved for emergencies.

The current three-digit area code system is limited because they all must have a middle digit of 0 or 1 to tell computer software a call is long distance. Under the new Bellcore-proposed system, middle digits of 2 through 9 could be used.

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