Area code 316 is the 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 city of

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...

, and surrounding communities. The area code was one of the original NANP area codes and formerly served all of southern

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...

. Today it is an

enclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

area code, in that it is surrounded by area code 620.

History

Despite its relatively modest population, Kansas was divided into two numbering plan areas (NPAs) when the original North American Numbering Plan was established in 1947. Under a preliminary plan, area codes were to be assigned sequentially based on geography and Kansas received area codes 617 and 618. When the final plan was adopted In October 1947, Kansas' two numbering plan areas were redrawn. The southern half (Wichita, Dodge City, Emporia, Garden City) received 316, while the northern half ( Kansas City,

Topeka Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central ...

, Lawrence, Salina, Hays) got

913 __NOTOC__ Year 913 ( CMXIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * June 6 – Emperor Alexander III dies of exhaustion while playing ...

. Long-distance dialing by subscribers using area codes would not be implemented until late 1951 in New Jersey. The 316-913 dividing line ran from west to east roughly following a path along K-4 and K-96. It dipped along I-135 in McPherson County and continued east to just north of Emporia in Lyon County, and ended at the

Missouri Missouri 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 is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

state line. The north-south split avoided cutting the major toll traffic routes that ran in east-west directions, a rule of traffic and implementation cost analysis.W.H. Nunn, ''Nationwide Numbering Plan'', Bell System Technical Journal 31(5), 851 (1952) However, a north-south split would have been necessary in any event because Kansas' three largest cities, and hence the bulk of the state's landlines, are all in the east.

Kansas goes from two area codes to four

The configuration with two area codes remained constant for more than 40 years. But by the mid-1990s, the pool of available exchange codes in area code 913 was being exhausted due to rapid growth in demand on the Kansas side of 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 ...

, particularly Overland Park and Johnson County from the proliferation of

cell phones A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

and pagers. Late in 1996, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC), which oversees telecommunications in the state, requested relief from the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) for the exchanges of area code 913, and on February 12, 1997, the NANPA responded by splitting most of northern Kansas from area code 913 into the new area code 785. From July 20, 1997, through October 2, 1998, customers affected by the new area code could use either 913 or 785 when dialing long-distance. On October 3, 1998, the 785 area code became mandatory in the new calling area. The southern half of the state would soon follow. With a similar proliferation of cell phones, especially in and around Wichita, the KCC requested relief for area code 316. On September 21, 2000, the NANPA split off most of southern Kansas and gave it the new

620 __NOTOC__ Year 620 ( DCXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 620 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

area code, which now completely surrounds 316, making it one of the six pairs of doughnut area codes in the numbering plan. 620 began its split on February 3, 2001; permissive dialing of 316 continued across southern Kansas until November 2, 2001. Even with the continued proliferation of cell phones and pagers, 316 is nowhere near exhaustion. Under current projections, Wichita will not need another area code until after 2050.https://nationalnanpa.com/reports/2020-1_NPA_Exhaust_Projections_Final.pdf

Service area

* Andover * Augusta * Bel Aire * Cheney * Colwich *

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gain ...

* Douglass *

El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or kin ...

* Goddard * Haysville *

Maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

* Mulvane * Newton * Park City * Rose Hill * Valley Center * Wichita

Boundaries

When most of the area of the original numbering plan area was reassigned with the new area code 620, all of Sedgwick County, home to Wichita, as well as portions of Butler, Kingman, Reno, Harvey and Sumner counties remained in area code 316. This area is largely coextensive with the

Wichita metropolitan area The Wichita, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, is an area consisting of four counties in south central Kansas, anchored by the city of Wichita. As of the 2013 American Community Su ...

. With the area code now shrunken to a fraction of its former size, 316 is the only one of Kansas' four area codes that does not reach the Missouri border.

References

External links

Area Code History1947 Area Code Assignment Plan
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090222045100/http://www.areacodedownload.com/316/index.html List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 316 Area Code {{DEFAULTSORT:Area Code 316

316 __NOTOC__ Year 316 ( CCCXVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sabinus and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 1069 ''Ab u ...

Telecommunications-related introductions in 1947