Area codes 816 and 975 are telephone

area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, rea ...

s in the

North American Numbering Plan The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is an integrated telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1, World Numbering Zone ...

(NANP) for most of the Missouri side of the

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

, the St. Joseph area, and all or part of 15 surrounding counties in northwestern

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. Upon its establishment as one of the original 86 area codes in 1947, area code 816 designated the western part of Missouri. bordering with

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. The numbering plan area was reduced in 1950 and 1997, and converted to an

overlay complex In telecommunications, an area code overlay complex is a telephone numbering plan that assigns multiple area codes to the same geographic numbering plan area (NPA). Area code overlays are implemented in territories of the North American Numbe ...

with area code 975 in 2002.

History

When the

American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT&T Corporation, an abbreviation for its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was an American telecommunications company that provided voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to busi ...

(AT&T) created a universal North American telephone numbering plan for

Operator Toll Dialing Operator Toll Dialing was a telephone call routing and toll-switching system for the Bell System and the independent telephone companies in the United States and Canada that paved the way for Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) by telephone service subsc ...

in 1947, Missouri was divided into two numbering plan areas (NPAs). Area code 816 served points generally north and west of Columbia and

Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Missouri. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 United States census, ranking as the List of cities in Missouri, 16th most popu ...

, while

area code 314 Area codes 314 and 557 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in the U.S. state of Missouri, serving the city of St. Louis and most of its inner-ring suburbs in neighboring St. Louis County. The numbering plan area ...

served the eastern third of the state, including

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. In 1950, a third NPA with

area code 417 Area code 417 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the southwestern quadrant of Missouri, including the cities of Branson, Carl Junction, Carthage, Joplin, Lebanon, Neosho, Nixa, Ozark, Springfield, and ...

was created for southwestern Missouri, including the cities of Branson, Joplin, and Springfield. This reduced 816 to the northern third of Missouri, including the

Kansas City metropolitan area The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

. Despite roughly doubling the population in the

during the second half of the 20th century, area code 816 retained its 1951 boundaries for 45 years. By late 1996, the proliferation of

cell phones A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive Telephone call, calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones (landline phone ...

and market reforms related to

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

by the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of ...

required an additional area code for northern Missouri. On April 10, 1997, Southwestern Bell declared a Jeopardy Situation with the Missouri Public Service Commission (MPSC), which oversees telecommunications in the state, and the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA). On July 28, 1997, Bellcore and the NANPA, announced an area code split, in which the Kansas City metropolitan area and the St. Joseph area would retain area code 816, while the remainder of the NPA would receive the new

area code 660 Area code 660 is the telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northern and western part of the U.S. state of Missouri. It surrounds the numbering plan area 816, from which it was split on October 12, 1997. Histor ...

. Area code 660 comprised the rural eastern and northwestern portions of the then-current 816 area to minimize disruption to subscribers in the more densely populated urban areas. The rate centers of Lexington (259) and Warrensburg (429) moved to 660, despite being generally considered a part of the Kansas City area. On June 4, 1997, the MPSC announced the split for October 12, 1997, when a permissive dialing period would commenced, until April 19, 1998, during which long-distance calls to the 660 territory could be completed using either 816 or 660. In 2000, the Missouri PSC announced plans to create an

overlay plan In telecommunications, an area code overlay complex is a telephone numbering plan that assigns multiple area codes to the same geographic numbering plan area (NPA). Area code overlays are implemented in territories of the North American Numbe ...

for the numbering plan area. On February 20, 2001, the overlay was approved by the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA), by assigning area code 975 for service starting October 20, 2001, which was later postponed to May 5, 2002. The subsequent implementation of code preservation measures, such as

number pooling Telephone number pooling, thousands-block number pooling, or just number pooling, is a method of allocating telephony numbering space of the North American Numbering Plan in the United States. The method allocates telephone numbers in blocks of 1,0 ...

, eliminated the immediate need for additional central office prefixes, prompting the MPSC to suspend implementation indefinitely. Despite Kansas City's continued growth, the Kansas City area was served by only 816 for over twenty additional years. Prior to October 2021, area code 816 had telephone numbers assigned for the

central office code The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is an integrated telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Numbering Zone 1 and has the ...

988. In 2020, ''988'' was designated nationwide as a dialing code for the

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the United States, or Suicide Crisis Helpline in Canada, and formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, is a suicide prevention and crisis help line to a network of a large number of crisis ce ...

, which created a conflict for exchanges that permit

seven-digit dialing Seven-digit dialing is a telephone dialing procedure customary in some territories of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for dialing telephone numbers in the same numbering plan area (NPA). NANP telephone numbers consist of ten digits, of wh ...

. This area code was therefore scheduled to transition to

ten-digit dialing Ten-digit dialing is a telephone dialing procedure in the countries and territories of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). It is the practice of including the area code of a telephone number when Dialling (telephony), dialing to initiate a t ...

by October 24, 2021. An October 2021 exhaust analysis by the NANPA projected central office code exhaustion by 2023. As a result, an overlay with area code 975 was scheduled with an in-service date of October 13, 2023. As ten-digit dialing was already in place, a permissive dialing period was not necessary.

Service area

Major cities

* Belton * Blue Springs *

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...

* Grandview *

Independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

Lee's Summit Lee's Summit is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri and a suburb of the Kansas City metropolitan area. It resides in Jackson County (predominantly) as well as Cass County. As of the 2020 census, its population was 101,108, making it the 6th ...

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

* North Kansas City * Raymore * Raytown * St. Joseph

Other cities

* Archie * Bolckow * Cameron *

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

* Dearborn * Edgerton * Ferrelview *

Freeman Freeman, free men, Freeman's or Freemans may refer to: Places United States * Freeman, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Freeman, South Dako ...

* Garden City * Gower * Greenwood * Harrisonville * Henrietta *

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. Founded in Adelaide, it was an automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter that sold cars under its own marque in Australia. It was ...

* Kearney * Lathrop * Lawson * Maysville * Peculiar * Platte City * Plattsburg * Pleasant Hill *

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

* Smithville

References

External links

History
{{Coord, 39.2, -94.4, format=dms, display=title, region:US-MO_scale:2000000 816 816 Telecommunications-related introductions in 1947