New Area Code Will Be Implemented In Los Angeles

Bruce Haring
·2 min read

The greater Los Angeles area is getting a new telephone area code, according to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). But don’t panic.

The CPUC says it is projected to run out of available combinations in the 213-323 area by June of next year. Existing 213/323 customers will keep their area code and telephone numbers.

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Area code 738 will be activated as an “overlay” of existing area codes 213 and 323, which serve downtown L.A., Alhambra, Bell, Bell Gardens, Beverly Hills, Commerce, Cudahy, Glendale, Hawthorne, Huntington Park, Inglewood, Lynwood, Maywood, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pasadena, Rosemead, South Gate, South Pasadena, Vernon, West Hollywood, and unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County, according to the agency.

The overlay won’t change anything. Instead, it will simply add a new area code to ensure that the phone service doesn’t run out of numbers.

The city has a long history of adding new codes. Some of them caused great upset to those who felt they were losing a part of their identity.

The 213 area code was created in 1947 and was one of the original three area codes in California. The 213 area code was split five times between 1951 and 1991, creating the 714 area code in 1951, the 805 area code in 1957, the 818 area code in 1984, the 310 area code in 1991, and the 323 area code in 1998.

The prejudice against area code changes aren’t strictly a Los Angeles thing.

In a 1998 episode of “Seinfeld,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Elaine is rejected by a man after she gives him a phone number with the 646 area code. On the show, Elaine hatched a plan to steal a 212 number.

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