Due to surging demand for phone numbers, plans are to give new Los Angeles-area cellular telephone and pager customers a new area code - 562 - starting in March 1996, Pacific Bell and GTE California officials said.
The new prefix - announced Tuesday - would be Southern California's eighth and the state's 14th area code - the most of any state.It is being called an "overlay code" because it would overlap existing numbers 818, 310 and 213.
In other words, new cellular and pager customers in all those area code regions would be given the new 562 area code for wireless communication.
Phone company officials say the demand for new numbers is especially strong in the 310 area code region, which includes West Los Angeles and coastal communities.
"We've had dramatic growth in the 310 area code because of the general explosion of technology, cellular, paging and data lines," said Pacific Bell Vice President Gene Sherman.
"(Overlay codes) make it possible to keep up with the demand for new telephone numbers and new technologies without requiring millions of people to change area codes," he said.
Initially, the new prefix would be assigned to new cellular phones and pagers in Los Angeles and northern Orange counties who subscribe to the services in March 1996. It also might be given to businesses, data transmission numbers and residential customers after the turn of the century, the phone companies said.
Sherman said that the new overlay area code should help slow down the demand for telephone numbers in the 310 area, which has grown twice as fast as anticipated. That area code was put in place in 1991.
Current customers might have to change their area codes to 562 in two years.