Area code 562

Area code 562 is a

Long Beach, and parts of northern Orange County

History

Prior to November 2, 1991, this region had been part of

. On January 25, 1997, the southern portion of the old 310 territory split again to become the 562 area code.

562 was originally meant to be an overlay code exclusively for cellular telephones and pagers for existing 310 area code customers in late 1995. However, the overlay (and all others in CA since 2008) was cancelled after cellular companies sued the California Public Utilities Commission to prevent a repeat of a similar split in New York City, where all 212 & 718 mobile customers were changed over to a new 917 NPA. Cellular technology was relatively new, and the industry argued that separate area codes for cellular customers created a stigma and would hurt sales as people wanted their home and cell phone numbers to be in the same area code. After years in court, the CPUC sided with the cellular industry, and so plans were made to split 310 instead.^[1]

Prior to October 2021, area code 562 had telephone numbers assigned for the

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which created a conflict for exchanges that permit seven-digit dialing. This area code was therefore scheduled to transition to ten-digit dialing by October 24, 2021.^[2]

County anomaly

All of this area code is in

AT&T Inc.) was the primary telephone company for most of Southern California, whereas this region's primary telephone company was GTE (later Verizon and now part of Frontier

). In fact, when 310 was carved out of the southern portion of the old 213 territory, Pacific Bell chose to move all of GTE's area code 213 exchanges into the 310 area code. As the primary telephone provider in Southern California, Pac Bell had the right to decide what exchanges stayed in 213.