Original North American area codes

In order to facilitate direct dialing calls, the North American Numbering Plan was created and instituted in 1947 by AT&T, also known as the Bell System. These 3 digit numbers were given to all regions throughout the United States and Canada. At first, the codes were used only by long-distance operators; the first customer-dialed calls using area codes did not occur until November 10, 1951, when the first directly dialed call was made from Englewood, New Jersey to Alameda, California. Direct dialing was gradually implemented throughout the continent, and by the mid-1960s, it was commonplace in most larger cities.

Originally there were only 86 codes, with the most prominent and frequently dialed population areas getting the numbers that took the shortest time to dial on rotary telephones. This is why, for example, New York City was assigned 212, Los Angeles 213, Chicago 312 and Detroit 313. Additionally, in the original plan a middle digit of zero indicated the area code covered an entire state/province, while area codes with a middle digit of one were assigned to states/provinces that were divided into more than one area code. In the original plan, the middle digit in an area code was always zero or one, so as not to conflict with local telephone exchanges, which were assigned one of the middle digits two through nine.

List of original area codes

• Area code 201 - New Jersey
• Area code 202 - District of Columbia
• Area code 203 - Connecticut
• Area code 204 - Manitoba
• Area code 205 - Alabama
• Area code 206 - Washington
• Area code 207 - Maine
• Area code 208 - Idaho
• Area code 212 - New York City
• Area code 213 - California
• Area code 214 - Texas
• Area code 215 - Pennsylvania
• Area code 216 - Ohio
• Area code 217 - Illinois
• Area code 218 - Minnesota

• Area code 301 - Maryland
• Area code 302 - Delaware
• Area code 303 - Colorado
• Area code 304 - West Virginia
• Area code 305 - Florida
• Area code 306 - Saskatchewan
• Area code 307 - Wyoming
• Area code 312 - Illinois
• Area code 313 - Michigan
• Area code 314 - Missouri
• Area code 315 - New York
• Area code 316 - Kansas
• Area code 317 - Indiana
• Area code 319 - Iowa

• Area code 401 - Rhode Island
• Area code 402 - Nebraska
• Area code 403 - Alberta
• Area code 404 - Georgia
• Area code 405 - Oklahoma
• Area code 406 - Montana
• Area code 412 - Pennsylvania
• Area code 413 - Massachusetts
• Area code 414 - Wisconsin
• Area code 415 - California
• Area code 416 - Ontario
• Area code 418 - Quebec
• Area code 419 - Ohio

• Area code 501 - Arkansas
• Area code 502 - Kentucky
• Area code 503 - Oregon
• Area code 504 - Louisiana
• Area code 505 - New Mexico
• Area code 512 - Texas
• Area code 513 - Ohio
• Area code 514 - Quebec
• Area code 515 - Iowa
• Area code 517 - Michigan
• Area code 518 - New York

• Area code 601 - Mississippi
• Area code 602 - Arizona
• Area code 603 - New Hampshire
• Area code 604 - British Columbia
• Area code 605 - South Dakota
• Area code 612 - Minnesota
• Area code 613 - Ontario
• Area code 614 - Ohio
• Area code 616 - Michigan
• Area code 617 - Massachusetts
• Area code 618 - Illinois

• Area code 701 - North Dakota
• Area code 702 - Nevada
• Area code 703 - Virginia
• Area code 704 - North Carolina
• Area code 712 - Iowa
• Area code 713 - Texas
• Area code 715 - Wisconsin
• Area code 716 - New York
• Area code 717 - Pennsylvania

• Area code 801 - Utah
• Area code 802 - Vermont
• Area code 803 - South Carolina
• Area code 812 - Indiana
• Area code 814 - Pennsylvania
• Area code 815 - Illinois
• Area code 816 - Missouri

• Area code 901 - Tennessee
• Area code 902 - Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick
• Area code 913 - Kansas
• Area code 914 - New York
• Area code 915 - Texas
• Area code 916 - California

See Also

• Bell System
• North American Numbering Plan
• List of future North American area codes
• List of North American Numbering Plan area codes