Area codes 678, 470, and 943 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, r ...

s in the

North American Numbering Plan The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a 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 and has the international calling ...

(NANP) for the

U.S. State In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in the

Atlanta metropolitan area Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and th ...

. The area codes are assigned in an

overlay plan Overlay may refer to: Computers * Overlay network, a computer network which is built on top of another network * Hardware overlay, one type of video overlay that uses memory dedicated to the application *Another term for exec, replacing one proce ...

to a combined numbering plan area (NPA) consisting of 404 (Atlanta and its suburbs inside Interstate 285) and 770 (Atlanta

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separ ...

s and

exurb An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing density, and growth. It sh ...

s outside of 285).

History

Telephone number A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices f ...

s in area code 678 were first assigned to customers signing up for new telephone service on January 15, 1998. On September 2, 2001, area code 470, was added to the 678 overlay area of area codes 404 and 770. Telephone numbers from the NPA were assigned after exhaustion of area code 678. In October of 2020, the Georgia Public Service Commission approved the creation of a new overlay area code after NANPA exhaustion analyses projected shortfall of central office prefixes by the second quarter of 2023. NANPA assigned area code 943 for relief, which commenced service on March 15, 2022. Although

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

was used in the Atlanta area since area code 770 was introduced in 1995, it was not until January 1, 1998, when 678 was implemented, that ten-digit dialing finally became required across the entire metro area. All central office prefixes of numbering plan area 404 are assigned to service providers, the last having been issued in October 2013. Prefixes 678 and 770 have also all been allocated, leaving only 470 central office codes available, although previously-used numbers are always available for reassignment to new customers. Despite existing for decades before this change, the largest customer using area code 470 is

Kennesaw State University Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a public research university located in the state of Georgia with two different campuses in the Atlanta metropolitan area, one in Kennesaw and the other in Marietta on a combined of land. The school was fou ...

Kennesaw Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...

, which was forced to change hundreds of telephone numbers when the

Georgia Board of Regents The Georgia Board of Regents oversees the University System of Georgia as part of the state government of Georgia in the United States. The University System of Georgia is composed of all state public institutions of higher education in the state. ...

forced schools in the

University System of Georgia The University System of Georgia (USG) is the government agency that includes 26 public institutions of higher learning in the U.S. state of Georgia. The system is governed by the Georgia Board of Regents. It sets goals and dictates gene ...

to implement internal telephone systems, and the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

failed to make

local number portability Local number portability (LNP) for fixed lines, and full mobile number portability (FMNP) for mobile phone lines, refers to the ability of a "customer of record" of an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number assigned by a local exchange ca ...

applicable to businesses and government, allowing

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

to refuse KSU to take its numbers to the new provider.

opted to use 470-578 (KSU) as their number prefix for the new phone numbers, outside of the normal geographical calling area for

; 470-578 numbers are based in Atlanta Northeast and

is located in the Atlanta Northwest calling area. The entire metro Atlanta region with area codes 404, 770, 678, and 470, is a local calling area, one of the largest in the United States, without long-distance charges for calls between area codes. All calls in the area are dialed with ten digits. In addition, calls to and from the Atlanta area with

area codes 706 and 762 Area codes 706 and 762 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northern and west central parts of Georgia, but excluding metropolitan Atlanta. The numbering plan area (NPA) is divided into three disconnected ...

, which serve most of north Georgia outside the metro area, are also local calls.

Service area

The numbering plan area 678/470/943 includes the counties of Barrow, Bartow, Butts, Carroll,

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb,

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals *Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett,

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

, Haralson, Henry, Heard (part with

), Lamar, Meriwether (part with

), Newton, Oconee, Paulding, Pike,

Polk Polk may refer to: People * James K. Polk, 11th president of the United States * Polk (name), other people with the name Places * Polk (CTA), a train station in Chicago, Illinois * Polk, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Polk, Missour ...

, Rockdale, Spalding, and

Walton Walton may refer to: People * Walton (given name) * Walton (surname) * Susana, Lady Walton (1926–2010), Argentine writer Places Canada * Walton, Nova Scotia, a community ** Walton River (Nova Scotia) *Walton, Ontario, a hamlet United Kingdo ...

References

External links

List of exchanges from Phone-Caller.com, 678 Area Code
{{DEFAULTSORT:678 Area codes in the United States Area codes in Georgia (U.S. state) 1998 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 2010 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)