Area codes 850 and 448 are telephone

area codes 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 ...

for the

Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the G ...

, including

Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the populatio ...

and

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

. Area code 850 was created in 1997 in a split from 904, and area code 448 was assigned as a second code to the same area in an overlay plan in 2019, and mandatory ten-digit local calling began in May 2021.

History

When the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) was created by

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 ...

in 1947, the entire state of Florida was assigned the area code 305. In 1953, the western part of the peninsula from the

Tampa Bay area The Tampa Bay area is a major populated area surrounding Tampa Bay on the west coast of Florida in the United States. It includes the main cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. It is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the United ...

southward received

area code 813 Area code 813 is an area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the city of Tampa, Florida, and surrounding areas such as Zephyrhills, Florida, Zephyrhills and Oldsmar, Florida, Oldsmar. Due to complete exhaustion of central office ...

, and in 1965,

North Florida North Florida is a Regions of the United States#Florida, region of the U.S. state of Florida comprising the northernmost part of the state. Along with South Florida and Central Florida, it is one of Florida's three most common "directional" regi ...

from the

Panhandle A salient (also known as a panhandle or bootheel) is an elongated protrusion of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state. While similar to a peninsula in shape, a salient is most often not surrounded by water on ...

to Jacksonville was assigned area code 904 to mitigate the state's growth in population and telephone service. For thirty years, North Florida remained a single numbering plan area (NPA) until 1995, when the southern part of the territory was split off with

area code 352 Area code 352 is a NANPA telephone dialing area around Ocala, Florida. It was split from area code 904 in 1995. It includes all of Dixie, Gilchrist, Levy, Marion, Citrus, Sumter, Lake (with the exception of Montverde, Florida), and Hernando c ...

. Continued demand put new pressure on the numbering resources, and within a year, further relief action was in the planning stage. The result was that the far western part of the panhandle (south of the Alabama state line) became a new numbering plan area with area code 850. Permissive dialing in the numbering plan area began June 23, 1997, and mandatory dialing commenced on March 23, 1998.

Original plan

Area code 850 was originally intended to be the relief code used in the 1995 split of the 904 area code. The Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Panama City and Pensacola

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 ...

s, and the Florida portion of the Mobile, Alabama

were to retain 904 while the

Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County, Florida, Volusia County near the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 ...

and Gainesville LATAs changed to 850. This plan was scrapped in favor of a plan that moved only the Gainesville LATA to a new area code, this time 352 (FLA on the telephone keypad) and kept the Daytona Beach LATA in then-904 along with the rest of northern Florida. The reason for changing from 850 to 352 was a potential dialing conflict with the 407-850 office code and some rate centers in the Gainesville LATA with 7-digit local calling into the 407 area code. Political pressure from the tourism industry in Daytona Beach resulted in that area being kept in the then-904 area code. The Florida Public Service Commission had planned a three-way split of 904 to take place in 1997. The Jacksonville

would move to a proposed 234 area code while the Daytona Beach LATA would change to the 386 area code. The Panhandle would have retained the 904 area code. Outcry from the public and business community in the Jacksonville region was significant since Jacksonville is the largest urban area in northern Florida, and would thus face a greater expense and burden to change phone numbers, reprogram cell phones and update printed materials than other parts of the area code. When an area code is split, normal practice calls for the old area code to be retained by the largest city in the former area code territory in order to minimize disruption. There was also opposition from NANPA and the

Federal Communications Commission 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 jurisd ...

. These two agencies objected because the split would have been unbalanced by creating a new code just for Daytona Beach. The Florida PSC changed course and adopted the plan that was ultimately implemented with the Panhandle, including

, moving to 850 and Jacksonville and Daytona Beach retaining 904. The 234 area code has since been put into service in Ohio as an overlay to area code 330.

Relief planning for an overlay

Area code 850 exhausted its available supply of central office codes in May 2021. Based on previous exhaust forecasts, NANPA began relief planning to provide additional numbering capacity in the 850 region. An initial planning meeting was held on May 16, 2019, where industry members recommended an all-services overlay as the preferred relief method. NANPA subsequently filed a request with the Florida Public Service Commission to approve a new area code overlaying 850. The Florida Public Service Commission approved the industry's all-services overlay recommendation on November 5, 2019. The new area code, 448, was officially assigned to overlay 850. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory on May 22, 2021. The in-service date, when first central office code assignment can become effective, is June 22, 2021. The first central office code assignment within the 448 area code occurred on May 14, 2021.

Service area

The 850/448 overlay numbering plan area comprises the following cities. * Apalachicola * Bonifay * Blountstown *

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

* Campbellton * Cantonment *

Century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial ...

* Chipley * Crawfordville * Crestview *

DeFuniak Springs DeFuniak Springs is a city in Walton County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,968 as of the 2020 Census. The county seat of Walton County, the city also serves as a hub for many residents in surrounding communities. In 2019, MSN's ''I ...

* Destin * Fort Walton Beach * Graceville * Greenville * Gulf Breeze * Jay * Lynn Haven * Marianna * Madison * Milton * Miramar Beach * Monticello * Mossy Head *

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

Niceville Niceville is a city in Okaloosa County, Florida, Okaloosa County, Florida, United States, located near Eglin Air Force Base on Boggy Bayou that opens into Choctawhatchee Bay. The population was 11,684 at the United States Census 2000, 2000 census. ...

* Pace *

* Perry * Port Saint Joe * Quincy *

Sopchoppy Sopchoppy is a city in Wakulla County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Tallahassee, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 457 at the 2010 census. As of 2018, the population was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to b ...

(State Capital) * Valparaiso * Wewahitchka

References

External links