Photo caption: Henning Andreasen Telephone (model F78), ca. 1977, manufactured by GNT Automatic A/S, Soeborg, Denmark
The New York State Public Service Commission on Thursday approved the petition by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator to implement a new area code that is consistent with the North American Numbering Plan,
The new area code will provide relief for the current 347, 718, 917 and 929 area codes, which serve the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Marble Hill sections of the New York City metropolitan area. Marble Hill is the northernmost section of the borough of Manhattan.
NANPA, which administers the numbering system for telephone networks in the United States, advises the Commission when the supply of telephone nuymbers within certain area codes in New York will be exhausted within a three-year period.
The will select the 3-digit number that will be used for the area code in the coming months.
This comes on the heels of the introduciton of a new area code, 363, in Nassau County, the most densely populated county in New York State outside of New York City, in 2023 and the addition of New York City’s seventh new area code, 332, in 2017, an overlay area code for Manhattan.
The other area codes in the Big Apple are 212, 718, 917, 646, 347, and 929.
The initial 90 area codes were assigned in the 1940s based on population size. Cities with the largest population were given area codes that were quick to dial on a rotary phone, hence 212 for New York, 213 for Los Angeles and 312 for Chicago, while less populous states such as Alaska, Idaho, and Hawaii got 907, 208, and 808 respectively. The adoption of push-button or Touch-Tone “dialing” starting in the 1960s made such consideration moot in the issuance of new area codes.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
