AC - Area Code

By: Christine Martz

Meaning of AC – “Area Code”, a telephone numbering plan consisting of three digits that are assigned to geographical areas in North America and used before a seven digit telephone number for placing a call to that area. AT&T created The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in 1947 in order to provide enough telephone numbers to cover the expected demand for telephone service. Eighty six area codes were assigned that first year. NANP is used in the United States and it's territories, Canada, Bermuda and much of the Caribbean.

Phone numbers in North America consist of 10 digits. The first three digits are called the NPA or numbering plan area codes. In early area codes, the first number had to be any digit from 2-9 and the second number was restricted to a 0 or a 1 and the third could be any digit from 0-9. That limited the available area codes to one hundred and fourty four possible codes. When the number of available area codes was running short in the early 1990's, the restriction on the second number was changed to allow any digit from 0-9. These new area codes became available in 1995. Nighty two new codes assigned in the next ten years because as available phone numbers run low within an area code, the area is split and the new regions are given a new area code.

Regulators have come to realize that this numbering scheme is inefficient. New ideas for conserving numbers are being explored. Some of these ideas include number portability (taking the number with you if you switch providers within the same area), pooling gathered unused numbers for all providers to use, and new number assignment constraints.

In 1999, the FCC started granting the first applications of individual entities within the NANP to begin using any or all of the numbering conservation plans listed above.

Other Related Definitions:

“…The format of an area code is NXX, where N is any digit 2 through 9 and X is any digit 0 through 9. Initially, the middle digit of an area code had to be "0" or "1". When this restriction was removed in 1995, additional area code combinations became available. There are 800 possible combinations associated with the NXX format.” [NeuStar, Inc]

“…Regulators in nearly half a dozen states are moving to impose moratoriums on new area codes out of concern that the burgeoning telephone industry is warehousing a vast reservoir of numbers instead of giving them to new customers. Poor management of telephone numbers, coupled with a refusal by the telephone industry to invest in new technology, is driving a need for more new area codes than are necessary, they say.” [Jube Shiver, Jr - Los Angeles Times]

“…Under an overlay solution, when the phone numbers in an existing area code are exhausted, new customers will be assigned a new area code. The new area code essentially lays atop the old; the two codes share the same geographic areas. Homes and businesses with existing service keep their phone numbers, while new customers are assigned numbers with the new area code.” [John Wilen - Philadelphia Business Journal]

“…Another long-overdue measure to relieve the area-code shortage would be to allow the designation of ``wireless'' area codes that would apply to cell phones and pagers. These technology-specific area codes would help preserve the endangered concept of geographic area codes. The FCC needs to waive the prohibitions against technology-specific area codes.” [San Francisco Chronicle]

“…NANPA holds overall responsibility for the neutral administration of NANP numbering resources, subject to directives from regulatory authorities in the countries that share the NANP. NANPA's responsibilities include assignment of NANP resources, and, in the U.S. and its territories, coordination of area code relief planning and collection of utilization and forecast data. ” [North American Numbering Plan Administration]

Related Links:

AreaCodeInfo.com - Great source for area code information.
LincMad - telephone Area Codes and Splits.
NANPA - North American Numbering Plan Administration website.
World Telephone Numbering Guide - Guide to numbers by country code or country name.
Area code 'overlay' opposed - Informative article about overlaying" new area codes atop existing area codes.
Using the Web to Help Hapless Callers Cope - A New York Times article about area codes.

Technical Resources:

Products and Solutions:

Software for updating area codes in your Palm Pilot address book.
Area code update utility program for ACT!, GoldMine and dBASE format files
Area Code Software

Blogs, News, Feeds, Discussion Lists:

Telecom Digest RSS News Feed
The Telecom Archives Mailing List

Books About:

2005 Complete US Zip-Area Code Directory - by Office TimeSavers.
Introduction to Telephones and Telephone Systems - by A. Michael Noll.
Local Number Portability - by Regis "Bud" J Bates. 

See Also:

Other Area Code Related Resources

 

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