End of line for 415 - 2nd area code coming for S.F., Marin Numbers tapped out in S.F., Marin

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The days of 415 are numbered.

Starting in 13 months, new phone numbers issued in San Francisco and Marin County will no longer begin with those three familiar digits. Instead, they'll carry a new area code: 628.

California regulators approved the switch Thursday, creating an area code overlay for San Francisco and Marin counties. Existing numbers won't change. But come February 2015, all new numbers will start with 628.

The reason? After 66 years of service, 415 is almost used up.

Without the new overlay, approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, all available prefixes within the 415 area code would be tapped out by late 2015. And in an era when even watches make phone calls, no one wants to run out of numbers.

Still, the new code may take some getting used to.

"Over the years, 415 equaled San Francisco," said Claude Fischer, a professor of sociology at UC Berkeley. "You're not out in the sticks. You are up there on Nob Hill."

Created in 1947, 415 was one of California's original three area codes. At first, it encompassed a vast swath of the state, stretching clear from the coast to Nevada, with 916 to the north and 213 to the south.

But California quickly outgrew that arrangement. In 1959, the state carved two new area codes - 707 and 408 - from 415's territory. The 510 code followed in 1991, 650 in 1997.

The numbers came to mean different places, with different identities. A 408 number meant Silicon Valley; 650 signified Palo Alto and the Peninsula. And 415 became identified with San Francisco, Marin and nothing else.

"You see people who wear shirts that reference the area code," said Robb Willer, a sociology professor at Stanford University. "It's not so different than wearing local (sports) jerseys. Not that they play for the team, but it's a symbol: 'This is where I am from.' "

Adding to the problem, many San Francisco residents who move elsewhere keep their 415 cell phone numbers as a reminder of their former home. Residents of New York (212), Boston (617) and other cities have been known to do the same.

In 1999, as available 415 phone numbers started running out, the utilities commission considered another split. The panel chose an overlay instead, picking the digits 628. But the phone companies found ways to stretch out the remaining numbers. The commission rescinded its decision and waited.

Now the explosive popularity of cell phones has brought 415 back to the edge of exhaustion. The 408 area code already suffered the same fate, getting an overlay number - 669 - last year.

An overlay allows everyone living and working in the affected area to keep their existing phone numbers, causing far less disruption and public anger than splitting an area code in two. Indeed, of the people who sent the commission comments on the proposal, 834 preferred an overlay, while 99 wanted a geographic split.

But while your current numbers won't change, your dialing habits will. Starting six months from now, anyone calling from one 415 number to another will need to use all 10 digits, preceded by a 1. Calling across the street, in other words, will work just like calling long distance, but you'll still pay the local rate.

That, too, may take a little getting used to.