Proposals for the new split - announced in February - call for it to occur just about at the Ventura and Santa Barbara county line. . .the loser would get a new area code.A meeting earlier this month with the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) drew private and business customers as well as government representatives who voiced their objections to an area code split. The Santa Paula City Council has also taken a firm stand to retain the 805 area code.There are 41 telephone companies operating in the 805 area code and they have until Oct. 1 to come up with how many unassigned numbers they have been given for future use: there is at least one block - possibly more - of 10,000 unused numbers in Santa Paula alone, assigned to a minor phone company.Cell phones, fax machines, pagers, computer modems have all increased the demand for phone numbers, as has the number of new telephone companies since the 1996 law that allowed much more competition in the communications industry.
Area code 805, unassigned numbers investigated
March 29, 2000
Santa Paula News
It's beginning to look like area code 805 has dodged the bullet of change, at least for awhile.
Regulators won't know for months if a ruling releasing huge blocks of unused telephone numbers - millions of numbers, as a matter of fact - will significantly delay plans to split the 805 area code, but it could.The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled in mid-March to allow states to redistribute phone numbers assigned to telephone companies that have been banked for future use.Phone numbers are assigned in blocks of 10,000 numbers - Santa Paula recently saw the addition of its third exchange - and those numbers often go to companies that don't have the customer base to support the allotment.Millions of numbers are believed to be available nationwide: last year, West Los Angeles County was found to have 3 million unused numbers in the 310 area code.The ruling by the FCC allows state regulators to assign numbers in blocks of only 1,000 and take back those numbers not being used under a plan known as number pooling. The plan is considered essential to forestall area code splits that customers are finding so troubling and are so fiercely fought by cities and counties.Ventura County has been area code wedded to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties for almost 50 years; several years ago, the last time a split in the area code was being discussed, the three counties banded together to urge that they be kept linked under the 805 area code.
