San Diego Area Code Split 1999-2000

[Bob Kuczewski]

In 1999, San Diego's single area code (619) was scheduled to be split into 3 parts (619, 858, 935). I petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission to allow people to keep their phone numbers. The City of San Diego supported my petitions with Mayor Susan Golding and City Attorney Casey Gwinn spearheading the City's effort.

My arguments were based on a few fundamental concepts. First, that the value of our phone numbers was created through our use of our own numbers and that should grant us some degree of ownership and control of those numbers. Second, that the repeated splits slice area codes into smaller and smaller regions which is qualitatively different than large splits because it disrupts local patterns of usage (people mostly call where they drive). Third, newcomers to a region should not be able to take phone numbers from established residents who have been using those numbers.

Eventually the CPUC voted, and we lost by only one vote of the 5 commissioners. You'll recognize the current US Attorney General's name of Loretta Lynch among the commissioners who voted against it:

    Commissioners who voted in support of my petition:
        Henry M. Duque - appointed by Pete Wilson in April 1995
        Josiah Neeper - appointed by Pete Wilson in September 1995
    Commissioners who voted in opposition of my petition:
        Richard A. Bilas - appointed by Pete Wilson in January 1997
        Carl W. Wood - appointed by Gray Davis in June 1999
        Loretta Lynch - appointed by Gray Davis in December 1999

While I lost that vote (and my 619 area code), it turns out that the second phase of the split (935, scheduled for 2000) was never implemented. Indeed, the emergence of cell phones is effectively implementing the "7-digit overlays" that I had been advocating. In other words, phone numbers are no longer strictly tied to geographic regions.

Here's a picture of the proposed 3-way split showing both the 858 code that we have now and the 935 code that was never implemented.

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These are some newspaper articles from that time.

Cracking the (area) code - Union Tribune Story by Mike Drummond

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1-man army launches code campaign - Village News: November 24th, 1999 by Bradley Weaver

PacBell clients muddle through code change - Union Tribune: January 5th, 2000 by Mike Drummond

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City attorney gets OK to oppose more area code splits - Union Tribune: January 19th, 2000 by Drummond

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