FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Docket #: R.95-04-043

Media Contact: Terrie Prosper, 415.703.1366, news@cpuc.ca.gov

PUC APPROVES ALL-SERVICES OVERLAY FOR 310 AREA CODE

SAN FRANCISCO, August 25, 2005 - The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) today unanimously approved a plan for an all-services area code overlay to the existing 310 area code in Southern California.

In order to ensure that consumers continue to have access to numbers from their carrier of choice by replenishing the stock of telephone numbers available within the 310 area code region, the Commission ordered implementation of the new area code, 424.

An overlay will not require consumers with existing telephone numbers to change their area code. Consumers that want new telephone numbers may have to accept telephone numbers with the new 424 area code. Some consumers may be assigned a different area code for new telephone numbers within the same residence or business where multiple telephone numbers already exist.

Under the new overlay plan, all calls within the 310/424 overlay region must include a "1" followed by the three-digit area code and seven-digit line number. Customers may begin using this dialing pattern beginning Dec. 31, 2005, and must use it starting July 26, 2006. New numbers will begin to be issued using the new 424 area code on or after Aug. 26, 2006.

"We have made every effort possible to avoid a split or overlay and for quite some time our number conservation efforts held off the need for implementation of a relief plan," said PUC President Michael R. Peevey. "The overlay approved today is the first time this form of area code relief has been used in California and we made this decision after vigorous debate over its merits versus a geographic split."

The 310 area code was created in late 1991 to relieve number exhaustion in the 213 area code. The 310 area code was subsequently split in January 1997, forming a separate 562 area code, again to replenish number supplies.

In approving an overlay, the Commission rescinded its previously adopted plan
(D.00-09-073) for a geographic split of the 310 area code.

For more information on the PUC, please visit www.cpuc.ca.gov.

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