USA telephone area code map - New Jersey

Area codes 609 and 640 are telephone overlay

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 The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is an integrated 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, World Numbering Zone ...

(NANP) for the central and southern parts of the U.S. state of

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. The numbering plan area includes the cities of Trenton, Princeton, Ewing,

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, and southeastern parts of the state and the

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore, commonly called the Shore by locals, is the coast, coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The term encompasses about of shore, oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy in the n ...

, including Atlantic City and Long Beach Island. In terms of geographic coverage, it is the largest numbering plan area in New Jersey. Area code 609 was created in a split of area code 201 in 1956. Area code 640 is an additional area code for the area, created on September 17, 2018.

History

In the original configuration of the first nationwide telephone numbering plan of 1947, all of New Jersey was a single numbering plan area, assigned the lowest-numbered area code, 201. In 1956, it was split to create a second numbering plan area, 609. This division generally followed the dividing line between North Jersey, proximate to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and

South Jersey South Jersey, also known as Southern New Jersey, comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located between Pennsylvania and the lower Delaware River to its west, the Atlantic Ocean to its east, Delaware to its south, ...

, proximate to

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and the

. Despite the division into two numbering plan areas, all calls within the state of New Jersey were dialed without area codes until July 21, 1963. Despite the presence of the Philadelphia suburbs, Trenton, Princeton and Atlantic City, South Jersey is not as densely populated as North Jersey. As a result, while North Jersey went from one area code to four during the 1990s, 609 remained the sole area code for the southern half of New Jersey for 41 years. By the late 1990s, the proliferation of cell phones and pagers, particularly in the Philadelphia suburbs, Trenton, and in Atlantic City, necessitated a new area code in South Jersey. In 1999, the southwestern part of the 609 territory, including most of the New Jersey side of the Philadelphia area, was split off with area code 856. The new area code entered service on June 14; permissive dialing of 609 continued across South Jersey until November 14.New Area Code Assigned to New Jersey

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press release dated March 9, 1999. Accessed July 3, 2007. Since that time, the 609 territory includes parts of

Central Jersey Central Jersey, or Central New Jersey, is the middle region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The designation Central Jersey is a distinct administrative toponym. While New Jersey is often divided into North Jersey and South Jersey, many resi ...

, South Jersey and the Jersey Shore, and many parts of Burlington County. It also includes portions of southern Middlesex County in Plainsboro, Cranbury, parts of South Brunswick (particularly Kingston) and the extreme southern part of Monroe. The boundary was drawn so that several towns were divided between by area codes, but office code protection afforded the convenience of seven-digit dialing. An October 2014 exhaustion forecast expected the 609 number pool to be exhausted by the second quarter of 2017, about 15 months later than projected a year earlier.NPA 2013 Exhaust projections
anpa.com Permissive dialing for all calls in 609 began on January 20, 2018, and ended August 18 when ten-digit dialing became mandatory. Overlay code 640 entered operation on September 17, 2018. With the implementation of the overlay, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities ordered the removal of central office code protection for a group of central offices between NPA 609 and 856, that had been in effect since the 1999 split to permit seven-digit dialing in the local area to the adjacent NPA.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Area Code 609 609 640 609 640 Atlantic County, New Jersey Burlington County, New Jersey Cape May County, New Jersey Hunterdon County, New Jersey Mercer County, New Jersey Middlesex County, New Jersey Monmouth County, New Jersey Ocean County, New Jersey 1947 establishments in New Jersey Telecommunications-related introductions in 1956 Telecommunications-related introductions in 2018

History

See also

References

External links