2. Background
The 818 area code was created in 1984 when it was geographically split from the 213 area code. In 1997, the original 818 area code was split creating the 626 area code and the current 818 area code. The current 818 area code covers predominantly the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County in Southern California.
In Decision (D.) 99-10-022, the Commission approved a two-way split of the 818 area code as a backup plan to the number conservation measures it ordered in that decision. As a result, thousand-block number pooling and other conservation measures have extended the life of the 818 area code and delayed the need for an area code change.3 However, at this point in time, conservation measures have run their course, and the remaining supply of numbers has dwindled to the point that a new area code must be opened. NANPA estimates that the 818 area code will exhaust in the third quarter of 2009. 4
The application presents two alternatives. The first alternative consists of an area code split, which would geographically divide the 818 area code into two area codes. This is the same split adopted in D.99-10-022. In a split, one side of the split retains the existing area code, while the other side acquires the new area code. The other alternative is an all-services overlay where the original and new area codes apply to the same geographic area. Both alternatives result in area codes estimated to exhaust in 24-26 years.
3 Thousand-block number pooling is a resource allocation system that divides a prefix or central office code (NXX code), which is a group of 10,000 telephone numbers, into ten sequential blocks or groups of 1,000 telephone numbers and allocates telephone numbers in blocks of 1,000. This system allows multiple service providers operating in the same rate area to share the ten thousand-blocks in a prefix at the thousand-block level.
4 An area code reaches "exhaust" when the supply of available central office codes or NXX codes (three-digit prefixes in common parlance) is depleted.
