Overlay zone for 714 is recommended

The North American Numbering Plan Administration will file its formal recommendation to the California Public Utilities Commission next month advising the agency to adopt an overlay option for the 714 area code, administration senior planner Joe Cocke said Thursday.

The administration is filing the recommendation on behalf of the telecommunications industry, which had already reached consensus to recommend the overlay before three public comment meetings around Orange County, including one in Huntington Beach.

Anticipating a shortage of 714 phone numbers, the Public Utilities Commission developed three alternatives, including an overlay zone that could add 657 as another area code in the area.

The overlay would allow people and businesses with a 714 telephone number to keep the area code. It would require new cellphone and telephone users to adopt the 657 area code.

If the overlay option is adopted by the commission, residents who have 714 telephone numbers will have to dial a "1" plus the 10-digit phone number for all calls, even if they're calling within the same area code.

The other two options are geographic splits, which would run along rate boundaries. One side of the split would receive 714 while the other would adopt the proposed 657 area code.

"It's very difficult to draw a split line without separating the two pieces of tourism [Huntington Beach and Anaheim] or separating the tourism from the county seat [Santa Ana]," Cocke said.

At the Huntington Beach public comment meeting, the majority of people who spoke preferred the overlay.

About 200 people commented at the three meetings, and the commission received more than 1,500 comments through its website as of Jan. 28. Over half of those who commented preferred the overlay zone to the plans for a split.

The commission will continue to accept public comments till it makes a decision toward the end of the year.

For more information or to make a comment, go to www.cpuc.ca.gov/714areacode.