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Washington State Area Codes and Numbering Issues
Regulated Industries > Telecommunications >
Washington State Area Codes and Numbering Issues
Washington State Area Code Exhaust Projections by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) http://www.fcc.gov/
Washington Area Code | FCC Area Code Exhaust Projections October 2010 |
206 | 2025 |
253 | 2031 |
360 | 2014 |
425 | 2031 |
509 | 2016 |
Numbering Efficiency and Conservation
The UTC and federal regulators require service provider to use the existing supply of numbers efficiently through: company rate center consolidations (expanding the area a prefix may be used); number pooling (allows up to ten companies to share a single prefix); state and federal regulatory number resource compliance oversight.
Number Portability
Number portability allows a customer to keep a telephone number when there is a change of service provider, location or service.
The FCC (Order CC Docket 99-200) requires all service providers to port numbers.
Area Code Changes
Western Washington:
In 2000, Area Code “564” was assigned to Western Washington by the FCC.
The UTC approved a plan to overlay a new area code over the current 206, 253, 360, and 425 area codes. Implementation of the new code plan requires customers to dial ten digits to complete a local call. All service providers were directed to allow customer calling using: seven, ten or eleven digits to make local calls.
ü Service Provider Compliance: Optional seven, ten, or eleven digit dialing remains in effect statewide.
Delay Western Washington New Area Code:
The UTC continues to postpone new area codes in Washington by exercising oversight and authority (FCC delegation) on number resource conservation measures.
Eastern Washington:
A plan to “overlay” the 509 area code with a second code and require ten-digit local dialing was proposed by FCC representatives on behalf of communications service providers.
The UTC dismissed the proposal in 2002 and instead focused efforts on using the existing limited supply of number resources more efficiently.
The shortcut to this page is www.wutc.wa.gov/telecom/numbers
Posted/updated: 12/07/2010
