
                     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
                     *     Pacific Bell News     *
                     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                          By Demon Phreaker 

 BOTTOM LINE MOVES 2 CITIES OUT OF VALLEY CODE
 Daily News of Los Angeles (LA) - SATURDAY December 16, 1995
 By: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer
 Edition: Valley  Section: NEWS  Page: N12
 Word Count: 615
 
 MEMO:
 Main Story: Hold the phone
 
 TEXT:
 Time  and  money  played  big roles in Burbank and Glendale being split off
 from   the   San   Fernando   Valley  into  the  proposed  626  area  code,
 telecommunications industry officials said Friday.
 It is possible to configure a plan that would keep both cities or just
 Burbank in the Valley's established 818 area code, they said.
 But  doing  so would create such an imbalance of customers between the
 two  area codes that the Valley would have to be split again in possibly as
 soon  as  three years, said Paula Olivares, Pacific Bell's area code relief
 coordinator who drew up the new boundaries.
 
 And  each  time  a  new  area  code  is  created  it costs local phone
 companies like Pacific Bell and GTE millions of dollars. Olivares estimates
 that  Pacific  Bell  spends  $15 million each time it introduces a new area
 code  and  that  money  comes  off  the  company's  bottom  line,  not from
 customers.
 "It's considered part of the day-to-day operations and can't be passed
 onto ratepayers," she said. "There's pressure to do as few as possible."
 With that in mind it makes sense for the boundary of the new area code
 to generally follow Burbank's city limits because it leaves each new region
 with about 3.6 million customers, Olivares said.
 
 She also notes that Pacific Bell opposes the split and instead favors a 
 three digit overlay  what  would  have  maintained the 818 area code's
 geographic  integrity.  But  California  Public  Utilities  Commission  has
 mandated  that  Pacific  Bell  submit  new  area  code  plans  to reflect a
 consensus of the industry.

 That calls for a split.
 And  it  could  result  in Burbank and Glendale getting unwanted image
 transplants,  since  their new area codes lumps them with cities in the San
 Gabriel Valley.
 
 "It  sort  of  bad  news. This adds up to confusion," said Jack Kyser,
 chief  economist  for the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County.
 "Consider  this  the  San  Gabriel Valley area code? I don't think so. As a
 resident of Glendale that's stretching the point."
 
 Plans  for  the  new  code were announced on Thursday by the Area Code
 Relief  Coalition,  which  includes  telecommunications  players  AT&T; the
 California    Cable    Television   Association;   Cox   Enterprises;   MCI
 Telecommunications;  MFS  Communications  Co.,  Inc.;  Sprint; and Teleport
 Communications Group.
 AT&T  spokeswoman  Kathi  Oram  said  then that Burbank was losing its
 Valley  identity  because  the  only  other  option available was splitting
 Glendale in half.
 
 Well,  that's  not  the  case,  and  Walter  Mosley, AT&T's manager of
 government  affairs, on Friday characterized the earlier description of the
 plan as a "little loose."
 One possibility for keeping Burbank in the 818 area would also include
 just  a  few  blocks  of Glendale east of Allen Avenue, which ends at Brand
 Park,  Pacific Bell's Olivares said. Another plan could keep all of Burbank
 and  most  of  Glendale,  except a small section near the Sholl Canyon Golf
 Course, in the 818 area.
 In  any  case, the new area code is needed because Southern California
 is running out of telephone numbers.
 Each  area  code  comes  with  792 "central office codes," three-digit
 prefixes  that identify local neighborhoods or communities. Phone companies
 can  build  10,000  phone  numbers  on  each  prefix. So each area code can
 potentially result in about 7.9 million phone numbers. Adding to the demand
 is the increased use in cellular phones.
 
 The  Valley takes a big hit here because the only switching station in
 the 818 area code is in Sherman Oaks, Olivares said.
 Any  one  who gets a cellular or pager number in this area code gets a
 number with a Sherman Oaks prefix, she said.
 There  are  about  250 area codes in use, Olivares said. Enough remain
 for several billion new phone numbers.
 

 HOLD THE PHONE Burbank, Glendale hung up on new area code proposal
 Daily News of Los Angeles (LA) - SATURDAY December 16, 1995
 By: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer
 Edition: Valley  Section: NEWS  Page: N1
 Word Count: 1,037
 
 MEMO:
 Sidebar: Bottom line moves 2 cities out of Valley code
 
 TEXT:
 The  maps show Burbank in the San Fernando Valley. So what Ken Hoagland and
 other Burbank residents can't understand is why the phone companies want to
 assign it a San Gabriel Valley area code.
 
 "We're  more  attached  to  the  San Fernando Valley," he said. "We're
 going to be lumped now with El Monte and Pasadena."

 Burbank  and  Glendale  are  now in the 818 area code. But because the
 telecommunications industry is running out of 818 numbers, it wants to base
 a  new  626  area  code  in  the  San  Gabriel Valley - and put Burbank and
 Glendale in it.
 
 The rest of the San Fernando Valley would stay in the 818 area.
 The  change  could  be a big problem for Hoagland, who runs a business
 called  Martin  Bio Products, which manufactures items that reduce the odor
 of manure and has customers all over the country.
 
 "We've got a lot of customers who have always dealt with us on the 818
 number,"  Hoagland  said.  "We  have  to change all the business cards, the
 stationary,   the   invoices,   the   catalogs,  the  literature.  It's  an
 inconvenience  and  I  don't  see  a  reason to go through it when there is
 another option."

 Hoagland wants everyone in the 818 area code to keep their number, and
 to give the 626 number to new customers.
 
 "If  you  move  your home or business you expect an area code change,"
 Hoagland said.
 Mary  Ann Sutliff, a hair stylist who owns a salon called Hair Country
 in  Burbank,  said  the  switch  is  unfair  because only the residents and
 businesses  with  the  new  area  code  have  to take on the expense of the
 change.
 
 "We  have to change our business cards. We have to change our checks,"
 Sutliff said. "It's going to cost way too much money to change everything."
 Since  the  popularity  of fax machines and cellular phones is causing
 the  need  for  more  phone  numbers  area codes should be changed only for
 numbers  linked  to  those  devices,  said Frank Quintero, president of the
 Glendale Chamber of Commerce.
 "I'm  as  guilty  as  anyone else. I have a cellular phone and a fax,"
 Quintero  said. "It would have been a better idea to give fax users and new
 cellular phone users a new area code."
 
 The  Glendale  Chamber  of  Commerce  actually  polled  its members on
 whether  the  area code should be split or if only new customers should get
 the  626  area  code.  According  to its findings, 57 percent preferred the
 split and 47 percent wanted to saddle new customers with the new code.
 Although he is upset about the split, Quintero is glad that the entire 
 city  of  Glendale  will have the same area code under the plan, instead of
 being split between 818 and 626.
 But  Burbank  Councilman  Bob  Kramer is angry that Burbank was lumped
 into the 626 area code. He's rather see an alternative plan that would keep
 Burbank in 818, but that would cause an 818/626 split in Glendale.
 
 "Burbank  is  in  the heart of the San Fernando Valley. Moving us into
 the  San  Gabriel  Valley  is  probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard,"
 Kramer said.
 
 "The  telecommunications  committee  has  demonstrated they could care
 less about what is good for the city of Burbank."
 Russell  Fox,  the  director of operations for the Burbank division of
 Nationwide  Paging  Inc.  was  a member of the committee that chose the new
 boundaries, and he said the group faced a daunting task.
 
 "If  they  knock  out  Burbank  and do the split along the Burbank and
 Glendale  border, the only difference is people in Glendale will be upset,"
 Fox said. "There is no easy way out."
 Under  the  current  plan, all of Burbank, except for 10 blocks at its 
 western  extremity,  would  be  changed  to  the  626  area  code. Under an
 alternative the committee rejected, Burbank would stay in 818 and the split
 would  have  been  made along Allen Avenue in Glendale. Under that scenario
 most  of  Glendale  would have been 626, but about 15 blocks in its western
 extremities would have remained in 818. 
 Since  phone-line  boundaries are not the same as city boundaries, the
 committee   was  unable  to  find  any  split  that  did  not  divide  some
 communities, Fox said.
 
 "Either you split a few blocks of Burbank or you split a few blocks of
 Glendale," Fox said.
 While  some  people  are just infuriated at the thought of their phone
 number being changed, others don't understand all the fuss.
 
 "There's  not much point in getting upset about something you can't do
 anything  about," said Malcolm Macdonald, manager of Book Castle's Magazine
 and Movie World. "I'd rather bite the bullet now and take the conversion as
 long as we don't have to do it again in another 10 to 15 years."
 But  in  fact,  the 818 and 626 area codes could face a split again in
 that  time period. The 310 area code was introduced in 1991, but is already
 slated to be split in 1996.
 Macdonald  doubts  the  change  will  affect  his business because the
 transition will take place over the course of a year.

 "If  we  don't  hear from somebody in a year, we're not likely to hear
 from them anyway," Macdonald said.
 Some businesses may opt to have phones with both area codes.
 Located  just  south  of the Glendale border in the Atwater section of
 Los  Angeles,  the Tam O'Shanter Inn until recently paid extra to have both
 213 and 818 lines.
 The  restaurant recently disconnected the 818 line because having both
 was  too expensive, said Christy Monfort, a hostess at the restaurant. Some
 customers  have  been  confused,  but  ripping  out the line has not really
 affected business.

 "We  do  so  many  area-code  changes  in Southern California now that
 people just kind of roll with the punches," she said.

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