Los Angeles County is getting a new area code — 738 — in November

Remember when Los Angeles had only one area code?

Of course you don’t. The area’s relentless growth forced regulators to split the iconic 213 area code again and again, starting a mere four years after its introduction in 1947.

Today there are 10 area codes in L.A. County, and in about eight months, there will be an 11th: 738, which will cover the same territory now served by 323 and the much-diminished 213.

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This is why we can’t have nice things: Landlines may be going the way of the fax machine — in fact, AT&T wants to end its duty to provide wired phone service to anyone in its California service area who asks for it — but the population of cellphones and other connected devices that require phone numbers continues to grow. So the area served by 213 and 323 is, believe it or not, running out of unassigned numbers.

The California Public Utilities Commission approved a proposal last year to add 738 to the mix as an overlay, meaning that it will be used in the same turf as 213 and 323. “The 213/323 area codes generally serve the downtown portion of the City of Los Angeles and the surrounding cities and communities, including Alhambra, Bell, Bell Gardens, Beverly Hills, Commerce, Cudahy, Glendale, Hawthorne, Huntington Park, Inglewood, Lynwood, Maywood, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pasadena, Rosemead, South Gate, South Pasadena, Vernon and West Hollywood, as well as unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County,” the CPUC helpfully explained on its website.

Under the plan approved by the CPUC last year, 738 will make its official debut in mid-November, so if you’re itching for a new number — say, (738) 543-2539, which would spell out the easy-to-remember (738) JHEALEY — you’ll have to wait till then. The commission and phone companies in the state are supposed to begin educating the public about the new code March 1.

The additional area code won’t change any numbers already in use, nor will it make it dialing numbers any more demanding than it already is. Since the 323 area code overran its original boundaries in 2017 to become an overlay throughout 213’s turf, people with 323 or 213 numbers have been required to dial all 10 digits of a phone number even when calling someone in the same area code. That will continue to be the case once 738 is in use.

With cellphones gradually replacing wired phones, new area codes and longer numbers aren’t as meaningful as they used to be. Increasingly, people place calls by touching a link on a smartphone screen rather than punching numbers on a keypad.

And with number portability — the ability to keep your phone number even when you change phone companies — area codes are losing their place as geographic symbols.

Twenty years ago, when your phone’s Caller ID display said the call was coming from Colorado, you could be pretty sure someone was calling you from Colorado. Today, all you know is that the caller’s phone number originated in Colorado.