Area codes 860 and 959 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, rea ...

s in the North American Numbering Plan in the U.S. state of Connecticut. They are arranged in an overlay plan that covers most of the state, except its southwest, which uses

area codes 203 and 475 Area codes 203 and 475 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The numbering plan area (NPA) is mostly coextensive with the Connecticut portion of the N ...

. Area code 860 was created on August 28, 1995, as a numbering plan area split from area code 203, in which the latter was reduced to Fairfield County (except for Sherman) and

New Haven County New Haven County is a county in the south central part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. As of the 2020 census, the population was 864,835, making it the third-most populous county in Connecticut. Two of the state's top 5 largest cities, ...

, plus part of Litchfield County ( Bethlehem, Woodbury, and a small part of

Roxbury Roxbury may refer to: Places ;Canada * Roxbury, Nova Scotia * Roxbury, Prince Edward Island ;United States * Roxbury, Connecticut * Roxbury, Kansas * Roxbury, Maine * Roxbury, Boston, a municipality that was later integrated into the city of Bosto ...

). Dialing of area code 860 became mandatory on October 4, 1996. Area code 959 was originally announced in August 1999 to overlay area code 860, but implementation efforts were delayed for over a decade, culminating in an effective starting date for operation of August 30, 2014. Nevertheless, all calls within Connecticut required ten-digit dialing as of November 14, 2009.

1999 overlay proposal

In August 1999, the

Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is a state agency in the US state of Connecticut. The department oversees the state's natural resources and environment and regulates public utilities and energy policy. It ...

proposed an area code overlay for numbering plan area 860, adding the new area code 959. This proposal was postponed for nearly a decade due to number conservation measures; in September 2008, the overlay was scheduled within two years (as of August 30, 2011, an activation date for 959 had not been announced). In March 2009, it was announced that the 203/475 overlay would be activated on December 12, 2009, with the 860/959 overlay becoming active by 2011. Even though the 959 area code did not have a specific start date, all callers in Connecticut were required to dial ten digits, including the area code. A leading ''1'' is required for originating toll calls from landlines, effective November 14, 2009, to reach another Connecticut number, including calls involving two numbers with the same area code. On August 27, 2013, the NANPA issued Planning Letter 456 which states that the 959 area code would go into effect on August 30, 2014. The first 959 area code numbers were distributed in December 2015.

Major cities and towns

* Bloomfield * Bristol * East Hartford *

East Lyme East Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 18,693 at the 2020 census. The villages of Niantic and Flanders are located in the town. Geography East Lyme is located in southern New London County, west ...

* Enfield * Glastonbury * Groton * Hartford * Litchfield * Manchester * Middletown *

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

* New London * New Milford * Norwich * Old Lyme * Sherman * Southington * Storrs * Stonington * Torrington * West Hartford * Willimantic * Windsor

References

External links

List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 860 Area Code
��1999 news story on planned overlay {{DEFAULTSORT:Area Code 860 Telecommunications-related introductions in 1995

860 __NOTOC__ Year 860 ( DCCCLX) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * June 18 – Byzantine–Rus' War: A fleet of about 200 Rus' vessel ...

Hartford County, Connecticut Litchfield County, Connecticut Middlesex County, Connecticut New Haven County, Connecticut New London County, Connecticut Tolland County, Connecticut Windham County, Connecticut