[Mark]

It all started with the damn ZIP Codes. Now the end is near!!

[SaveTheChief]

We've been doing that in Houston for quite some time. Looks like California is behind the times. :-P

[goldstategop]

They're running out of phone numbers. Hence a new overlay in California.

(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em, Down Hezbullies.)

[Alberta's Child]

“Some of the carriers were screaming they didn't have numbers, and here it's been seven years and nobody's been denied a telephone number in the 310 area code.”

There's a reason for that. The dramatic growth in computer-based communication in the last 10 years (e-mail, instant messaging, teleconferencing, etc.) has rendered the fax machine nearly obsolete. This has slowed down the growth in demand for new phone numbers in most metropolitan areas.

I'm not even sure why it's such a big deal for people who don't like this 11-digit dialing anyway. So many people place phone calls these days using pre-set/memory dialing that pressing each individual digit is becoming a thing of the past, too.

[EveningStar]

SoCalPing

[martin_fierro]

Then there's the prestige factor.

Pffft.

[dalereed]

Totally stupid, they should make all numbers 8 digits and they increase all of them by 10 million.

I remember when they did it in Los Angeles from 6 to 7 digits to increase the numbers.

[Xenalyte]

Wonder why they have to dial 11 digits. Here in Houston, with three area codes (713, 281, and 832), we still only have to dial 10.

[wagglebee]

Consumer activists and politicians mobilized against the plan, however, and in 1999 the California Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 to halt it. At the state's behest, phone companies found other ways to conserve numbers. Typical of the California leftists to force private corporations to accommodate them.

[Berosus]

*Yawn*

We've had 10-digit dialing in Orlando since 1999, when we got our second area code (321) to join the previously existing 407. I thought California was supposed to be ahead of the rest of the country in everything.

[TankerKC]

Growing up in Colorado in the 70s, we only dialed 4 numbers. Many folks still had party lines.

[Cobra64]

Californians to be required to dial 11 digits each time they pick up the phone...

Brrrring... "Hello? Hold on, I have to dial eleven digits."

Communication skills today are atrocious.

[BlessedBeGod]

This happened around Chicago a while ago.

[TheDon]

No one will notice. You only need update your phone directory once.

[Koblenz]

I always thought overlays were stupid. Except that cell phones should be on separate area codes, because they really don't have a geographical home. 917 in NYC is sort of like this.

Does anyone still pay for long distance calls on an individual basis? Here I've got unlimited long distance.

[Bernard]

I live in the 847 area code, and we have had to dial 11 digits for several years. And, with all the numbers stored in my cell phone, it's not that often that I have to dial 11 digits anyway.

Just think, if computers could have been programmed to just add one more digit at the end of all numbers, there would be no need to dial 11 digits.

[aomagrat]

If Mayberry gets another area code, does that mean that the phone company has to hire someone to help Sara?

[Melas]

11? Most of Texas is 10 digit dialing. Where is the extra digit?

[TRY ONE]

Kalifornia 2006: Press "1" for English

Kalifornia 2007: Press "1100001" for English

[Drew68]

Then there's the prestige factor.

“People are very aware of the 310 area code,” said Darren Lewis, a manager in the music industry who works in Santa Monica. “It has a cachet.”

LOL! Somehow, Mr. Lewis, I think you'll live through this.

Now, if Lewis adds another phone line to his office, it will start with 424, which he expects will confuse the many people he deals with on the East Coast.

“People are going to wonder where you are,” he said.

Eventually they'll figure it out. Buck up, cowboy! It ain't the end of the world.