Residents and businesses with a landline 909 telephone number, will now need to dial '1' and the area code for all calls, effective immediately, while wireless customers will need to just dial the area code before phone numbers.
This is all to make way for the introduction of the 840 area code next month. Starting February 23, customers requesting new or additional telephone numbers may be assigned the 840 area code in order to address the shortage of available numbers in the region currently served by the 909 area code.
909 telephone numbers are used the southwest portion of San Bernardino County and small portions of Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles Counties.
The changes will not apply to dialing three-digit numbers like 9-1-1 or to the cost of calls.
To learn more visit www.cpuc.ca.gov/909areacode/.