Residents say, ‘Let me keep my number’

The California Public Utilities Commission will continue taking public comments and suggestions regarding plans that could be put in place by the end of 2008, when the commission has forecasted that the 714 area code will run out of prefixes.

Anyone who has a 714 area code — including Costa Mesa residents and businesses — will be affected by the change, which utilities commission spokeswoman Sue Wong said would be decided some time before the end of the year.

About 50 Orange County residents weighed in on the plans at a meeting Thursday night at Huntington Beach City Hall, moderated by an analyst and spokeswoman from the utilities commission and a representative from North American Numbering Plan Administration.

Most of the residents who spoke at Thursday’s meeting favored the overlay option, which would not change anyone’s existing 714 number, but would require new cellphone and telephone users to adopt 657, the proposed new area code.

“I recommend the overlay option because of the financial impact the splits could have on business,” Westminster resident and Huntington Beach city worker Richard Robba said.

The inconvenience associated with the overlay — having to dial a “1” plus the 10-digit phone number, even if the number has the same area code — seemed like a nonissue for most who spoke.

Two geographic split options have also been proposed by the commission, but both would split cities, much like Costa Mesa was split when part of the city adopted the 949 area code and others kept 714.

Two split options have been introduced, but no decision has been made as to which region would keep 714. Many who spoke against a split cited the costs and lost business as reasons no split should occur.

Anaheim resident Leslie Hefley said he has had the same cellphone number for more than six years but still gets calls for a business that changed its number to 949 when that split happened. He’s even had to record a message telling callers the number for the business.

Hefley said he preferred the overlay zone for the impending plan.

Overlay options have not traditionally been chosen by the commission, but one such plan was recently implemented in Santa Monica and has been quite successful, Verizon Wireless associate director of state public policy Joyce Masamitsu said.

“The common theme is very human,” T-Mobile spokeswoman Susan Lipper said. “People are saying, ‘Let me keep my number.’ ”

And although the consensus at the Huntington Beach meeting was for the overlay option, some people had other ideas.

Huntington Beach resident Tim Geddes said he did not favor the split option or the overlay option, but instead wanted Huntington Beach to be able to align with other resort towns like Anaheim and Buena Park, and keep 714.

Jim Hicks of Huntington Beach said he thought a split should be made right up the Santa Ana River.

Many people wonder why the area code change can’t be confined to just cellphones, Masamitsu said. But because of a Federal Communications Commission ruling on phone number portability, the utilities commission cannot implement a technology-specific overlay.

“Now with portability, which allows consumers and businesses to take their phone numbers to another carrier, it’s very difficult to do a TSO [technology-specific overlay] because now you can take your land line number and put it to a wireless and vice versa,” Masamitsu said after the meeting.

“You could never have a pristine area code for something like cellphones because of this portability, and that’s a great ruling from the FCC, and a lot of people love the fact they have the freedom to take their number to whatever service they want to take it to.”

Because Costa Mesa lies within the Santa Ana rate center, whatever decision the commission makes for Santa Ana will be relevant to residents of Costa Mesa who have 714 numbers.

Any decision will not affect those with 949 numbers, according to the commission.

The public participation meetings have ended, but the commission is accepting suggestions online or by e-mail.

For more information, go to https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/714 areacode or send e-mail to public.advisor.LA@cpuc.ca.gov.