Patterns of Life

Some parts of the country are very defensive of their area code, especially if they face the possibility of losing it due to a split. 

Among the communities who have argued that area codes are part of their "culture", the following have managed to hold on to theirs for the time being:

Boston, 617
Chicago, 312
Kansas City, 816
Las Vegas,  702
Miami, 305
New Orleans, 504
Philadelphia, 215
Phoenix, 602
Pittsburgh, 412
Saint Louis, 314
Seattle, 206

Absolutely Useless Trivia

Eight of the most useless pieces of information you're likely never tell your friends, even if they do work in telecommunications!

The only two adjacent consecutive area code regions are 307 in Wyoming and 308 in Nebraska; and Colorado's 719 and 720. Area Code 609 in New Jersey and 610 in Pennsylvania miss each other by a sixteenth of a mile at the northern-most point (New Hope, PA is still 215/267/445 while Lambertville is 609 and Frenchtown, NJ is in 908 while Lumberville, PA is in 610/484/835) and the assignment of 856 in New Jersey cut off the southern contact points. Maryland's 301 and Delaware's 302 were adjacent until 410 was assigned to the Eastern shore.

In 1947 the number of US states assigned a single area code was thirty-five (counting DC and not including Alaska and Hawaii, which were not yet states). By 1994, that number had slipped to twenty-four (including Alaska and Hawaii). Today (May 2002), that number now stands at fifteen (fourteen if you count the pending split of New Mexico's 505), with nearly half already exploring relief plans for relief in the next eighteen months.

The first area code to ever be assigned was 201 in New Jersey in 1951. The first "new style" area codes assigned were AL-334 and WA-360 in January, 1995. Both 630 and 562 were cancelled prior to implementation due to lawsuits filed by cellular companies, who charged that service-specific overlays were a discrimination of "class of service".

318 is the only area code to be ever be used twice in the United States. The first time was in the early 1950s, when used in San Francisco for direct-dial testing. The area code was then pulled back and reassigned to Louisiana for relief of 504. 706, 903 and 905 were also "re-used", but were originally assigned to dial-able points in Mexico prior to reclamation and reassignment in Georgia and Ontario respectively.

The original 1947 area code assignments were in part determined by population density in metropolitan areas. All phones were rotary dials, and the time it took to wait for the dial to spin back around made dialing area codes like 909 a time consuming affair (9 pulses + 10 pulses + 9 pulses = 28 pulses). As a result, areas with the most people and the most use of phone numbers were assigned codes with the fewest pulses to complete. New York City received the only 5 pulse area code, 212. Northern IL (including Chicago) and southern CA (including Los Angeles & San Diego) received the only two 6 pulse codes, 312 & 213 respectively. Southeastern Michigan (including Detroit), Northeastern Texas (including Dallas) and southwestern Pennsylvania (including Pittsburgh) were assigned 7 pulse codes, 313, 214 & 412 respectively. By the time we get to the 8 pulse codes, we start to see less concern with length as Missouri (including St. Louis) got 314, while sparsely populated western MA got 413.

The first discontiguous area code (geographic area divided by land served by another area code) was 914. In 1947, 914 covered what today includes 914, 845, and Long Island's 516 & 631 area codes. Long Island was of course separated by New York City's 212. In 1951, the 914 area code split, creating Long Island's 516 in Nassau & Suffolk Counties. Today, four area codes are discontiguous by land: FL-386, GA-706, TN-423 and WA-360. A few area codes are discontiguous by water, such as the VA portion of the DelMarVa peninsula served by 757.

If you examine the original 1947 map, and you will notice that every state, territory and province that was assigned a SINGLE code had a ZERO as the middle digit. Areas assigned multiple codes, such as CA, TX, IL, NY, PA, etc., received area codes with a ONE as the middle digit. This practice was abandoned in 1954 when it became clear that the available supply of new codes needed would outstrip the N1X codes left over from the initial assignment.

Geographic Extremes (East & West determined by the International Date Line): The westernmost area code in the NANP is Alaska's 907 at the farthest of the Aleutian Islands, and the and easternmost is Guam's 671, "where America's day begins". The northernmost is Canada's 867 (TOP of the world). The southernmost is Trinidad & Tobago's 868, a few degrees from the equator! Within the lower 48 States, 218 in Minnesota is farthest north (at Penasse), 305 and 786 in the Florida keys are the farthest south, Maine's 207 is the easternmost and Washington's 360 and 564 are the westernmost area codes.