Countywide : For Some, It’ll Soon Be Dial ‘00’ for Operator

An estimated 66,000 Orange County residents will have to dial “00” instead of “0” to reach the operator for help in making certain calls beginning Monday.

They will be the first telephone customers in California to use a new operator-assistance system that will be operating statewide by midsummer, a Pacific Bell spokesman announced Tuesday afternoon.

As a result of the court-ordered breakup of the Bell system in 1984, AT&T; and Pacific Bell are splitting responsibility for operator-assisted calls. AT&T; will handle long-distance operator assistance, and Pacific Bell will handle the service for local calls.

Affected telephone users will continue to dial “0” for assistance for numbers in certain Southern California area codes and will start dialing “00” for long-distance help, Pacific Bell spokesman Michael Runzler said.

Those users, residents of Santa Ana, Mission Viejo and El Toro, constitute less than 10% of the telephone company’s estimated 725,000 subscribers in Orange County.

“We’re really talking about a minor number of calls,” Runzler said. “The only time you’re affected is when you need an operator or if you are having problems with a long-distance call.”