SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) - Do you have a phone number with a "619" or "858" area code?
If so, you may be in for a little headache in the coming days.
On May 19th, San Diego residents will have to dial the full ten digit number on their phone device to make a call. This means you will need the correct area code to make a call to a "619" or "858" number. For land lines, you will need to dial the full ten digit number preceded by the number "1".
Officials say because of the rapid growth of people living in San Diego, the change had to be made in order to make more numbers available.
In a traditional area code overlay, a new area code is added to the existing area served by the area code in which numbers are dwindling. In this case, instead of adding a new area code to the region, the Public Utilities Commission eliminated the boundaries so that the 619 and 858 numbers will be available for the whole region..
Phone users will not be charged extra. Emergency, helpline and information request numbers like "911", "211" and "411" will stay the same.
Experts suggest updating your contacts with the appropriate area codes as soon as you can on all your devices, including voicemail, fax machines and even websites.
For mobile devices you will need to dial the 10 digit phone number and for landlines, you must dial 1 + the area code + the phone number.