310 area was recently part of the 213 area code, and more recently included Long Beach and the 562 area code. In splitting 310, we knew that it was getting extremely difficult to split along any readily recognizable boundaries. The City of Long Beach now has two different area codes. It would clearly prove problematic to split the 310 yet again Surveys indicated that residents and businesses in the 310 were evenly divided between a split and an overlay either choice leaves many unhappy. An overlay enables everyone in the affected area to retain his or her current phone number unless the customer moves there would never be a need for a new number no confusion by relatives.
Overlays cause less disruption for small businesses no lost customers or incomplete calls.
Overlays had worked in other areas in the country. The need to dial the area code plus seven digits, although onerous, is an FCC requirement and thus unavoidable. The FCC had limited the Commission either from adopting code conservation measures or from assigning area codes to specific technologies. It seemed that an overlay offered a longer-term solution to the problem of number changes affecting the West Side of Los Angeles. We have focus group and survey results, posted in the room and attached below.