State regulators are talking about dividing the valley again… this time into two area codes: 818 and 747. This would add to the already large mish-mash of codes in the area: 805, 661, 626, 323, 424, 310, and the big granddaddy, 213… of course this is on top of 949, 714, 909, and 562. This would either be an overlay, or a potential split of the valley along a roughly-diagonal line separating the “fancier” southwest communities of Agoura Hills, Encino, Woodland Hills, and Sherman Oaks from the northern/eastern valley communities. The “when” is also up in the air, but we all know this will eventually happen. We should all remember that all of this pain comes from hard-wired limitations in most computer programs that expect phone numbers to be in a 3-3-4 format, thus procluding the simple solution of making exchanges within area codes to be 4 digits (i.e., 3-4-4, or 818-8530-1212 vs 818-853-1212).
Of course, the San Fernando Valley is not alone. The SJMN is reporting that the SF Bay Area could be next. Based on the most recent estimate by the California Public Utilities Commission, which overseas oversees area code changes, the 408 area code is expected to lose the capacity to add new phone numbers by the third quarter of 2010. The 415 and 510 area codes are expected to fill up in 2012, the 650 code in 2015, the 925 in 2019 and the 831 code in 2027.
