Press Release

Number Conservation Measures Ordered in 818 Area Code
CPUC Orders Geographic Split as Back-up Relief Plan
New 747 Area Code Assigned to the Southwestern Portion of the 818 Area Code

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 8, 1999) The 747 area code has been assigned to relieve the 818 area code, which services the San Fernando Valley portion of Los Angeles, according to the Communications Industry Services (CIS) division of Lockheed Martin IMS, which serves as the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA). The new are code will be implemented once the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) determines the 818 area code needs relief.

In a unique ruling last month, the CPUC ordered a variety of number conservation measures to address the exhaustion of numbers in the 818 area code. The Commission's ruling was done in an effort to delay or eliminate the need to introduce a new area code in the existing 818 area code, which is currently projected to exhaust in the first quarter of 2001.

The conservation measures ordered by the CPUC include:

• Establishing voluntary 1,000-block number pooling and preparing for mandatory number pooling
• Recovering prefixes that have not been timely activated
• Ordering efficient number management practices by the industry, such as sequential numbering
• Exploring other feasible means of promoting more efficient number usage, such as rate center consolidation
• Ordering carriers to provide to the CPUC utilization information necessary to implement return of unused numbers and efficient number allocation.

As a back-up for these conservation measures, the Commission adopted a geographic split plan developed by the California telecommunications industry for the 818 area code. Under this plan, a new area code would be introduced, if needed, to serve the southwestern part of the current 818 area code, while the 818 area code would be retained by the northeastern portion of the area.

"The California Commission's decision is unique in that it hasn't determined when the new area code will be implemented for 818", said Joe Cocke, NANPA's Senior Area Code Relief Planner for California. "However, once the CPUC decides the new area code is needed, the industry will be ready to implement the new 747 area code."

The Commission deferred adopting an implementation date for the 818 area code split unless and until they determine that number conservation measures fail to provide enough number resources to serve the needs of residential and business customers, and facilitate local telephone service competition in the 818 area.

In a geographic split, a new area code is added to a portion of the geographic area served by the existing area code. When the CPUC determines that a new area code is required, the 747 area code will serve the Agoura, Canoga Park, Reseda and Van Nuys rate areas, including portions of the City and County of Los Angeles and the cities of Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills and Westlake Village. All existing numbers in the northeastern area will retain the 818 area code, including portions of the City and County of Los Angeles, and the cities and communities of Burbank, Glendale, La Canada-Flintridge and San Fernando. Under this plan, all calls made within the same area code may continue to utilize seven-digit dialing.

Cocke said the introduction of the 747 area code will not affect the price of telephone calls. "Local calls will remain local calls regardless of the area code dialed," he noted.

Area code relief activities for the 818 area code are administered by CIS, which was selected by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to serve as the NANPA. NANPA is a neutral, third-party administrator that is responsible for area code relief planning and also oversees the assignment of area codes, three-digit central office codes, carrier identification codes, and other numbering resources throughout the United States, Canada, Bermuda and 16 Caribbean countries.

For media inquiries, please contact Bill Stern, spokesman for the North American Numbering Plan Administration, at 202-533-2648.