This law explains that due to the high demand for phone numbers in California, more area codes are needed than initially anticipated in 1990. Since local phone services are now competitive and the FCC has implemented changes, area codes are assigned by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator with assistance from the state commission and telecom industry members.

To avoid confusion when creating new area codes, the 1997–98 law changes include identifying "providers." These providers are telephone companies, resellers regulated by the commission, and paging companies which are not regulated. The law makes clear that by listing paging companies as providers, it doesn't increase regulatory control over them.

This section is about how new telephone area codes are established in California. Telephone companies and paging businesses, called providers, follow guidelines when setting up new area codes. When a new area code is needed, a coordinator figures out where it should be based on local factors like city borders and local interests.

After deciding a new area code is necessary, the coordinator must notify the state commission about it at least 30 months before it starts. Within three months of this notice, providers must inform their customers. Additionally, public meetings may be held to discuss the changes

By 11 months, a plan is submitted for approval and any objections can be made within 60 days. A year before the new area code starts, the coordinator and providers need to inform everyone involved about the changes in detail. This ensures everyone is prepared for the switch to the new area code.

This law outlines what phone service providers must do when a new area code is introduced. Firstly, if seven-digit dialing is allowed, they must offer a transitional period where both the old and new area codes can be used. Secondly, after this period, they should provide a free recorded announcement indicating the new area code when the old one is dialed, as long as prefix codes are available. If the new area code requires 10-digit dialing, any transitional periods or messages must comply with commission orders. These provisions stop applying if a federal or state agency mandates 10-digit dialing.

This law ensures that phone call rates remain the same even when an area code is divided into multiple new area codes. The number of digits you have to dial doesn't affect the rates.

The California Legislature notes that since 1991, the number of area codes has more than doubled, which has created problems for residents and businesses. People are being forced to change their long-standing numbers, causing inconvenience and costs. This includes expenses for new stationery and the time taken to inform customers of number changes. Employee productivity is also affected by adapting to new area codes.

The Legislature's policy is to preserve existing area codes as much as possible and reduce the hardships caused by the introduction of new area codes. It is essential for the public agency, the commission, to protect area codes and find ways to prevent their unnecessary increase.

This law requires the commission to find ways to manage telephone numbers more efficiently. They need to evaluate cost-effective methods for managing phone numbers, like combining rate centers, distributing phone numbers in smaller groups than usual (less than 10,000), and transferring unused numbers. It also clarifies that a phone number consists of an area code, a prefix, and a line number.

This section requires that before adopting a plan or deciding on a date to change or add area codes, the commission must instruct the North American Numbering Plan Administrator to gather usage information for the area code in question.

This law requires phone companies to assign phone numbers from prefixes (the first part of a phone number) that are more than 25% in use. This is a temporary rule until better number management methods are developed. If a prefix is less than 25% used, companies can only assign numbers from it if the more used prefixes are unavailable.

This law states that if a process is set up to allocate phone numbers in smaller blocks than the usual 10,000, the California commission will require phone companies to return any unused blocks of numbers to the administrator responsible for managing phone numbers. The commission will decide how many numbers should be returned. Additionally, the commission will instruct the administrator to retrieve these smaller unused blocks and will define what it means for numbers to be 'not in use.'

If a phone company operates in California and owns any telephone number prefixes, it's required to give information about which ones are being used and which aren't to the commission or its agent. This must be done according to a schedule set by the commission.

This law section outlines how California should handle creating new phone area codes to minimize disruption for customers. If a new area code must be added, the commission should assign numbers for mobile phone services to a unique area code and may allow seven-digit dialing within this new code. Before approving new area codes, a study of current phone number usage and efforts to conserve phone numbers should be conducted. If granted authority by the Federal Communications Commission to create these specific area codes, the commission should use it unless doing so would cause more disruption or not extend the lifespan of the existing code. Importantly, any new implementation must not affect a customer's ability to keep their phone number when switching services, a feature known as number portability.