Jun. 8—In order to address the amount of phone numbers that will be needed in the future, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday approved a request for a new "area code overlay" for the 530 area code region, which includes Yuba, Sutter, and Colusa counties.

The commission said that the new area code overlay, which is 837, adds an additional area code to the geographic region served by the existing 530 area code.

"Therefore, multiple area codes co-exist within the same geographic region," officials said. "Existing 530/837 customers will retain their area code and specific telephone number(s). Customers will continue to dial the three-digit area code for all calls to and from telephone numbers with the 530 and 837 area codes. The price of a call will not change due to the overlay. Customers can still dial just three digits to reach 911, as well as 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, and 811."

The commission said the 837 area code was needed to meet the demand in the region and minimize customer inconvenience.

"The 530 area code is projected to run out of available prefixes (the first three numbers after the area code in a telephone number) during the third quarter of 2025," CPUC said. "The CPUC's action today approves the request of the North American Numbering Plan Administrator, the neutral third-party area code relief planner for California, for an area code overlay. No existing customers will be required to change their area code or specific telephone number. The new overlay area code of 837 will be available for new telephone number assignments in the same region as the 530 area code upon exhaust of available prefixes in the existing 530 area code."

CPUC said the 530 area code covers most of the northeastern portion of California, including all or portions of Alpine, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo, and Yuba counties. It also serves cities and communities including but not limited to Chico, Davis, El Dorado Hills, Oroville, Paradise, Placerville, Red Bluff, Redding, South Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Woodland, and Yuba City, as well as unincorporated areas.

Officials with CPUC offered the following tips to help prepare for the new area code: — Contact security or alarm vendors to update dial-up numbers to avoid a break in security routines and contacts. — Reprogram equipment or features, i.e., automatic dial, speed-dial, call forwarding, modems for computer or Internet dial-up access, etc. — Update items like stationery, checks, etc., to include your area code + telephone number. — Provide your area code and telephone number, not just the telephone number, as needed. — When asking for someone's number, remember to ask for the area code too. — Remember that the previous area code and the new area code will co-exist within the same geographic region.

CPUC said the 530 area code was formed in 1997 when the commission approved an area code split of the 916 area code, introducing the 530 area code.