COUNTIES BEGIN 805 AREA CODE NUMBERS GAME.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

Let the digit wars begin.

Public officials and business leaders from six Southland counties faced off Thursday over the splintering of the 805 area code. At half capacity and filling up fast, 805 is headed for a split - a change that has business, political and community interests forming alliances and fighting impromptu turf wars.

State regulators presented several options Thursday that divide the area code along a variety of boundaries, from mountain ridges to county lines, then pared the list down to four. California Code administrator Doug Hescox said each option is designed to disrupt the fewest people while still satisfying the voracious appetite for new numbers.

``It's a very hard job. Someone will be inconvenienced no matter what we do,'' he said.

One of the largest area codes in the state, 805 includes most of Ventura County, all of Santa Barbara County, most of San Luis Obispo and Kern counties and the northwest tip of Los Angeles County. Established 40 years ago, the area code has grown dramatically in the past two years, with 285 of 782 prefixes remaining.

The area must be split by the turn of the century to satisfy the demand for phone lines to carry new tools of telecommunication including fax machines, cellular phones, pagers and modems.

``Many people believe area codes run out of numbers because of population growth, but the real reason is technology,'' said David Dickstein, a spokesman for Pacific Bell. ``Five years ago, none of us expected to have homes to have lines for Internet service or faxes or pagers. All those demands equal numbers.''

Deregulation of the local phone industry also has increased demand. More than 100 phone companies are preparing to enter the market, each of which will be assigned entire banks of numbers, Hescox said.

State regulators must decide who will feel the sting of the split. While all telephone users concede the need to create a new area code, few have volunteered to make the change themselves. Merchants complain of the added cost and inconvenience of altering everything from business cards to stationery and invoices.

The four options generally are divided to create northern and southern territories or to split coastal communities from inland neighbors. As quickly became apparent during the hearing, area codes mean far more than simple numbers.

``It's part of their identity,'' said Walter Mosley, manager of government affairs for AT&T. ``Communities identify themselves according to their area code. Any time you want to change that identity, people are resistant.''

Ventura County would remain intact in all seven options. But the county could be assigned a new area code and be lumped with northern Los Angeles County or with Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

``All we really care about is keeping Ventura County intact and holding on to 805 if we can,'' said Ed Sajor, an aide to county Supervisor John Flynn.

Decisions about which communities to lump together are based on a variety of factors, Hescox said. San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties have lobbied to be joined, while some officials from Ventura County want to see the boundaries of state assembly districts respected.

The meeting was the first in a series to review alternatives. The plan is being coordinated by an industry group of more than 30 companies. Under California law, public hearings are held before the industry submits a plan to the Public Utilities Commission and administrators at Bell Communications Research, the organization that administers the North American Numbering Plan.

``We don't do this in a smoke-filled room,'' Hescox said. ``We get out into the public and find out what people think of the alternatives.''