The California Public Utilities Commission has heeded the voices of North County residents and business owners and sensibly agreed to reconsider its decision to strip the region of its 760 area code.
The reopening of the administrative hearing process does not ensure that telephone customers will be able to keep their familiar area code. But the mere possibility is a coup for Leucadia businessman Scott Chatfield, who created the keep760.org Web site after the commission ruled in April that North County would be assigned a new area code, 442.
Chatfield, a music producer, galvanized North County residents, including Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, and the chambers of commerce of Oceanside, Carlsbad, Escondido, Encinitas, San Marcos and Vista. The assemblyman, acting personally, and the chambers hired a San Francisco Bay Area utilities lawyer who formally appealed to the commission.
Chatfield has been called a hero by some, but he demurs. “I'm the squeaky wheel, but Garrick owns the repair shop,” the affable organizer said.
There is no doubt new area codes are needed in California. Population growth, demand for more lines in homes and businesses, and the relentless growth in use of wireless devices has nearly exhausted the 7.9 million new numbers that were created with the advent of the 760 area code in 1991, splitting North County from the 619. The current 760 area covers 46,666 square miles, or about 29 percent of the state's geography.
The PUC's initial plan would have left the eastern portion of the region – Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino and Inyo counties, along with portions of Kern and Mono counties – in the 760 area code while assigning 442 to the northern and far eastern portions of San Diego County.
But the common-sense approach favored by Chatfield, Garrick and North County business leaders is for an area code overlay. Simply put, that would allow existing users to keep their phone numbers, while new telephone customers, or those requesting additional lines, in the same geographic area would be assigned 442 area codes.
Representatives of the North County chambers of commerce rightly note the great expense that would be borne by businesses forced to change stationary, business cards and advertising to reflect new numbers, not to mention updating contact information to vendors and customers. In addition, residential and cellular phone users would face the inconvenience of notifying all their contacts of the change.
The overlay approach is hardly radical. A new 657 area code is in the process of being overlayed on Orange County's 714. “Geographical splits are so 20th century,” Chatfield said. “Overlays are 21st century.”
We urge the PUC, after holding new hearings next week in Victorville and Carlsbad, to take the next step and do the right thing for business owners and consumers by keeping the 760 in San Diego County.
