With 707 numbers running out, Solano County could get new area code
The CPUC will hold a meeting next month to discuss the implementation of a new area code for Solano County and other areas.
(Stock image)
The California Public Utilities Commission will hold a meeting next month to discuss the possibility of launching a new area code in Solano County and other parts of Northern California, Solano NewsNet has learned.
The meeting comes after federal regulators warned that the region is in danger of exhausting its supply of phone numbers that start with the 707 area code.
In a letter sent to the CPUC in April and obtained by Solano NewsNet, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) said the region served by the 707 area code is projected to run out of available phone numbers by the end of 2023.
The NANPA, which serves as an extension of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said the situation warrants the creation of a new area code for phones and other devices that are activated in the coming years.
The NANPA did not say in its letter which three-digit area code was being considered for the region. The 707 area code, which was implemented in the 1950s, covers all of Solano County as well as all, or portions of, Del Norte, Glenn, Humbolt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, Tehama and Trinity counties.
Technological advances, including a rapid increase in cellphone adoption and so-called “virtual” numbers that are connected to web services like Google Voice and RingCentral, have caused situations where the available pool of phone numbers under a legacy area code like 707 is rapidly drying up.
A similar situation occurred several years ago in the Sacramento region, where the NANPA and the CPUC approved a new area code — 279 — after the availability of 916 phone numbers was projected to run out by 2018.
If regulators agree to a new area code, it would exist alongside 707, not replace it. New phones would likely receive a phone number with the new area code; current customers who have a 707 phone number will be allowed to keep it.
The CPUC’s meeting will be available as a webcast on August 1, 2021. Those interested in streaming the meeting can do so on the CPUC’s website by clicking or tapping here.
In addition to the new area code proposal, federal regulators are ending a practice where customers could omit the area code when dialing a local number.
Starting next July, customers will have to first dial 1, then the area code, then the seven-digit phone number, even if they are placing a phone call to a number within the same area code.
That move comes after the FCC approved a request to allocate 9-8-8 as the three-digit phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline in 2018. Some local phone numbers currently begin with those three digits; the FCC implemented the full number dialing requirement in order to prevent accidental calls to the hotline.
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