What Next for the 805?

Next Monday, Santa Barbarans interested in learning more about the new area code assignment for the 805 can meet at 7 p.m. at the Eastside Branch Library’s Martin Luther King Jr. wing, 1102 East Montecito Street, with reps for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The area code is expected to exhaust the available discrete phone number combinations in about a year’s time, and the new set of numbers will roll out in June 2018 for most all of Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties, and small areas of Monterey and Kern counties. The new number will not be determined, said Joe Cocke with the agency, until the CPUC decides whether to impose it for a small area of existing numbers or create new numbers with it. Those who cannot attend the August 22 meeting can comment via email to public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov or call to voice their opinion at (866) 340-6147.