Area codes 201 and 551 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, re ...

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 ...

in 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 ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

. Area code 201 was the area code assigned to the entire state of New Jersey in 1947, when the North American area code system was formulated. After splits in 1958, 1991 and 1997, it covers the northeasternmost portion of the state, including most of Hudson and

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

counties on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

, bordering

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Major cities in the numbering plan area include

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine ...

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark, New Jersey, Newark.

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 ...

, Hackensack, Secaucus and Englewood. Area code 551 is an overlay code to the same numbering plan area that was installed in 2001.

History

Area code 201 was the first-assigned numbering plan area (NPA) code of the original NPAs when

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 tel ...

devised the North American Numbering Plan in 1947. It was also the first area code with

Direct Distance Dialing Direct distance dialing (DDD) is a telecommunication service feature in North America by which a caller may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area. Direct dialing by subscribers typically requires extra d ...

(DDD) service, when in 1951 the first direct-dialed long-distance call was made from

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from po ...

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for " tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda Island, but also spans Bay Farm Island and Coast Guard Island, as we ...

. Area code 201 originally covered the entire state of New Jersey,1951: First Direct-Dial Transcontinental Telephone Call
AT&T Inc., accessed May 12, 2007. despite the state's dense population. The bulk of New Jersey's population is concentrated in the large metropolitan area west of

in the northeast and the suburbs of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in the southwest. The creation of numbering plan areas was based on the anticipated number of central offices needed in each area and one plan area could only accommodate slightly over 500 central offices. In 1958, 201 was restricted to northern New Jersey, while the area from the state capital, Trenton, southward, including the southern

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May P ...

and the New Jersey side of the lower Delaware Valley, received

area code 609 Area codes 609 and 640 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the central part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The numbering plan area includes the cities of Trenton, Princeton, Ewing, Hamilton, and southe ...

. For the next 33 years, area code 201 served Bergen, Hudson,

Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, Union,

Morris Morris may refer to: Places Australia *St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Manit ...

, Passaic,

Hunterdon Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 128,947, making it the state's 18th-most populous county,Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. ...

, Sussex and

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

counties, a region largely coextensive with the New Jersey side of the New York City area. As the central region of New Jersey grew during the 1980s, the northeastern section of the state lost sizable portions of its population due to the decline of its major cities, including Newark,

Paterson Paterson may refer to: People * Paterson (surname) * Paterson (given name) Places Australia *Paterson, New South Wales *Paterson River, New South Wales * Division of Paterson, an electoral district in New South Wales *Paterson, Queensland, a lo ...

, Clifton, and Elizabeth. On June 8, 1991,

area code 908 Area code 908 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in the northern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The numbering plan area (NPA) comprises communities in Union County, Somerset County, northern parts of M ...

was split from 201; it primarily serves the north-central regions of the state.About Verizon New Jersey: Years 1985 to 1998
,

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

, accessed May 12, 2007. Within four years, 201 was close to exhaustion once again due to the proliferation of cell phones,

pager A pager (also known as a beeper or bleeper) is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknowl ...

s and

fax machine Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephone, telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a ...

s. The supply of numbers was further limited because the entire northern half of the state is a single

LATA Lata (Hindi: लता) is a Hindu/Sanskrit Indian female given name, which means "creeper" and "vine". Lata may refer to: Notable people named Lata * Lata Bhatt (born 1954), Indian singer. * Lata (born 1975), Musician. *Lata Mangeshkar L ...

, meaning numbers in 908 were not available for use. On June 1, 1997, Essex and Passaic counties—respectively home to Newark and Paterson, the state's largest and third-largest cities—as well as Morris and Sussex counties were split off as area code 973. This left Hudson and Bergen counties, the two most densely populated counties in the state and the closest to New York City, as the only counties in the 201 plan area. The 1997 split was intended as a long-term solution. However, demand for new numbers continued in Hudson and Bergen counties, and it was apparent the area would need another area code.

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

, the dominant telephone company in New Jersey, lobbied for an overlay rather than a split. Overlays were a new concept at the time, and were controversial because they required implementation of

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 ...

. However, Verizon wanted to spare its customers the burden of changing telephone numbers. Area code 551 was created in 2001 to overlay 201, along with area codes

862 __NOTOC__ Year 862 ( DCCCLXII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * The Varangians (called Rus'), under the leadership of Rurik, a Viking chieft ...

and

848 __NOTOC__ Year 848 ( DCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Bordeaux, capital of Aquitaine, falls into the hands of Viking rai ...

, which overlay area codes

973 Year 973 ( CMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – The Byzantine army, led by General Melias (Domestic of the Sc ...

and

732 __NOTOC__ Year 732 ( DCCXXXII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 732 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...

, respectively.McKay, Martha
"New Jersey Assigned New Area Codes."
''

The Record (Bergen County) ''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and ...

'', April 18, 2001. Accessed August 11, 2001. "The new New Jersey area codes -- 551, 356, and 848 -- were announced this week and will be introduced next year in the regions currently served by 201, 973, and 732, respectively." With the implementation of the overlay area codes on December 1, 2001,

became mandatory in Northern New Jersey.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Area Codes 201 And 551

201 Year 201 ( CCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Fabianus and Arrius (or, less frequently, year 954 ''Ab urbe condit ...

Telecommunications-related introductions in 2001 Telecommunications-related introductions in 1947

History

See also

References

External links