O.C. Will Keep 714 Code; Inland Empire to Switch : Telephones: The system change is to take effect Nov. 14, 1992. Two of every five people in old code area will be placed in 909 area.

SAN BERNARDINO —  Orange County gets to keep its 714 area code while the swelling Inland Empire will have a new 909 code to put on checkbooks, business cards and stationery under a decision announced Wednesday by regional phone companies.

The new plan takes affect Nov. 14, 1992, but phone users will have a nine-month grace period to get accustomed to the new digits. During that transition, callers can use either area code. After that, they will have to “please try your call again.”

Citing cost, convenience and public opinion, GTE California, Pacific Bell and Contel decided to carve the new area code zone essentially along county boundaries. They rejected two proposals that would have assigned 909 to south Orange County and the Inland Empire, or sprinkled new 909 numbers among the old 714 ones.

Two of every five people who now have a 714 area code will switch to 909. The new area code will serve 1.8 million numbers in the western and central portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, along with the eastern Los Angeles County communities of Claremont, Pomona, Diamond Bar, San Dimas, La Verne and Walnut.

The approved boundaries drew positive reviews from phone users and civic leaders throughout the region, even among those who will have to live with the change.

“This was a logical plan and people accepted it,” said Art Wick, president of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. “You usually hear people making all sorts of noises about a decision like this, but not this time--I wish everything were this easy.”

The phone companies were forced to look for a new way of serving their customers in Orange County and the Inland Empire because a boom in population, along with fax machines, cellular phones, pagers and other modern technology, meant they were running out of phone numbers.

Still, even with the switch, phone officials predict that the 714 and 909 zones will each tap their numerical wells dry again early in the next century--in Orange County by the year 2004, and in the Inland Empire by 2017.

“If California continues to grow the way it is,” warned Pacific Bell spokeswoman Linda Bonniksen, “area codes are going to split again and again and again until we come up with a whole new system.”

Indeed, the Inland Empire will be the third region in California to get a new area code in the next two years.

Parts of the San Francisco Bay Area will split from 415 to 510 in September, 1991, and parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties will split from 213 to 310 in November, 1991. Seal Beach and parts of La Habra, Los Alamitos and Brea are now served by 213 and they will be included in the 310 zone.

Phone officials said an answer to the short supply of phone numbers may come with technology. Right now, only ‘0’ and ‘1’ are used nationwide as the second digit in area codes so the phone system can recognize a long distance call but phone officials said this may not be necessary soon.

If any three-digit number can serve as an area code, more zones can be created and there would be less need to switch to accommodate growth, officials said.

Establishing the 909 area code will cost about $14 million in transition costs for call-routing equipment, directory changes and manpower training--or about $200,000 more than either of the other plans that had been under consideration, according to Terry Holte, Pacific Bell’s senior engineer. Phone officials said the switch will not affect rates.

When the phone companies put forth their three proposals in November, officials said they preferred the plan that essentially followed county boundaries. And at a series of public hearings held in the region in the fall, residents agreed. Phone company officials, in fact, said the 60 or so people who turned out for the hearings were nearly unanimous in their support.

Several residents said that to place a division within counties or, worse yet, to have new 909 numbers next door to old 714 ones would prove “a mess.”

The new plan does not divide any cities that now share a common area code, city officials said.

Under one of the rejected plans, a part of Irvine would have been sliced off into the 909 area code. “I could just hear my constituents coming to the City Council and saying they didn’t want all their stationery changed,” Irvine Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan said. “This will be nice--we have different ZIP codes already (in Irvine) and that was tough enough for everyone to learn.”

Larry Walker, chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, said he is concerned about a small unincorporated portion of his county in the Sleepy Hollow/Carbon Canyon area that is to remain in the 714 area. But aside from that issue, he is satisfied with the plan.

“Changing your area code is something you learn to deal with in Southern California, so people adjust,” Walker said. “If everyone’s going to have a cellular phone and a modem, the need is there. And this is the best we could do.”

Some were more than satisfied with the change in area code.

“When I first heard about this, I was thinking what a boom it would mean for us,” said Bob Verseput, manager of Stump Printing and Services in Ontario, which makes business cards, stationery and a range of other products that are bound to be in hot demand by the time November, 1992, rolls around.

“Unfortunately, it’s going to mean a real inconvenience for our customers,” he said, “but we’re really looking forward to it.”

AREA CODES, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Under the approved plan, all of Orange County now in the 714 area code will keep that number. Virtually all of the rest of the 714 region--in eastern Los Angeles County and western Riverside and San Bernardino counties--would get a new 909 code in January, 1993.

* This area will be served by area code 310 in November, 1991.