Area code 270 is a 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 ...

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

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with " republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from th ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

's western and south central counties. Area code 270 was split from

area code 502 Area code 502 serves north central Kentucky, primarily Louisville, its suburbs, and the state capital, Frankfort. Its service area encompasses the following Kentucky counties (the boundary closely, but not exactly, tracks county lines): * And ...

on April 19, 1999. Planning for the introduction of a second area code for the region, area code 364, was assigned in 2007. After several years of delay in activation, it was announced in December 2012 that the two area codes would be configured 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 ...

in August 2013. Mandatory ten-digit dialing began on February 1, 2014. Numbers of the new area code were made available for assignment on March 3, 2014. Major cities in the numbering plan area include Hopkinsville, Paducah, Henderson, Murray,

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

, Owensboro, Elizabethtown, and Madisonville. It also includes Kentucky's share of

Fort Campbell Fort Campbell is a United States Army installation located astride the Kentucky–Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee (post address is located in Kentucky). Fort Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne Div ...

. It does not include Green River Island, a former island of the Ohio River that is part of Kentucky despite being north of the river's present course. The most notable landmark in that area, served by Indiana's codes 812 and 930, is the Ellis Park horse racing track.

History

Area code 270 split off from area code 502 in 1999. The split generally followed the boundary between the Eastern and Central time zones; generally, Kentucky's share of the Central Time Zone became 270. The creation of 270 was intended as a long-term solution. However, within only six years, 270 was already close to exhaustion due to the proliferation of cell phones and pagers. In 2006, Kentucky officials announced that 270 would run out of numbers in late 2007. On May 31, 2007, the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) announced that 270 would be split along the

Pennyrile Parkway The Edward T. Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway was the designation for the controlled-access highway from Henderson to Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The parkway originally began at an interchange with the Audubon Parkway and US 41 near the city of Hende ...

, with a newly created area code serving western Kentucky (Paducah, Hopkinsville, Henderson, Madisonville, Murray, and the Kentucky side of

), with west-central Kentucky (Bowling Green, Owensboro and Elizabethtown) retaining 270. The PSC noted that mandatory

number pooling Number pooling is a method of reallocating telephony numbering space in the North American Numbering Plan, primarily in growth areas in the United States. Instead of allocating blocks of ten thousand numbers to each carrier in each community, a bl ...

, recently imposed on the region, may delay the implementation of the new code--and thus spare customers in the territory slated to move to 364 the expense and burden of having to change their numbers for the second time in a decade. Surprisingly, Kentucky's two most urbanized area codes, 502 ( Louisville) and 859 (serving Lexington and

Northern Kentucky Northern Kentucky is the third-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky after Louisville and Lexington, and its cities and towns serve as the de facto "south side" communities of Cincinnati, Ohio. The three main countie ...

), were not expected to exhaust until 2017 at the earliest, even though they have fewer numbers than 270. On June 13, 2007, the PSC announced that the new area code will be 364, but also announced that the previously announced implementation would be delayed in favor of number conservation measures including expanded number pooling. On June 15, 2007, the PSC postponed the permissive dialing of the new 364 area code to October 1, 2008. Mandatory dialing to the new area code was changed as well, but the actual date was to be determined later by the PSC. On November 1, 2007, the PSC again postponed permissive dialing of the new 364 area code, this time to January 1, 2009. On March 31, 2008, the PSC again postponed permissive dialing of the new 364 area code, to April 1, 2010. A date for mandatory dialing to 364 was left undetermined. On June 2, 2009, the PSC again postponed permissive dialing of the new 364 area code, to January 1, 2012. Mandatory dialing to 364 was still left undetermined. The split was suspended indefinitely on August 13, 2010 with no permissive dialing date. In December 2010, relief was suspended completely and was believed to be dead. These subsequent delays of the implementation of the 270 / 364 area code split were due to further use of number conservation measures, including mandatory and expanded

, as well as a weakened economy and a reduced usage of telephone numbers dedicated for use by computer and fax modems. On September 27, 2012, the PSC announced that all number conservation options had been exhausted, and the implementation of 364 could no longer be delayed. According to the PSC, NANPA projected the 270 region would exhaust by the first quarter of 2014. NANPA recommended that instead of the original proposal for a split, 364 should be implemented as an overlay for the 270 region. Under the NANPA proposal, existing 270 numbers would be retained by customers, but 10-digit dialing for local calls would be required across western Kentucky. The PSC also considered an alternate proposal to split the 270 area code region. "Splitting the area code in two avoids ten digit dialing but requires changing all current area code 270 numbers within the new area code to 364. That includes numbers assigned to wireless devices," said Andrew Melnykovych, Director of Communications for the PSC. The commission announced plans to hold public meetings throughout the 270 region the next month to explain the options and receive public comment. The commission also said that it will accept comments on the industry's overlay proposal for the 270 region up through November 16 2012.

References

External links

List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 270 Area Code
{{Area code box, State=KY , This= Area code 270/364 , N= 618, 812/930,

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Telecommunications-related introductions in 1999 Telecommunications-related introductions in 2013