Area codes 904 and 324 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, reach ...

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 ...

for most of the First Coast (northeast) region of the U.S. state of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The numbering plan area comprises most of the metropolitan area of

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

. It includes all of Duval County, St. Johns County, Nassau County, and Baker County, and almost all of Clay County. Area code 904 was created in an area code split of area code 305 in 1965. In 2024, the numbering plan received a second area code, 324 , through the creation of an

overlay complex In telecommunications, an area code overlay complex is a telephone numbering plan that assigns multiple area codes to the same geographic numbering plan area (NPA). Area code overlays are implemented in territories of the North American Numbe ...

to mitigate central office code exhaustion and provide additional telephone numbers in the area.

History

In 1947, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) designated the entire state of Florida as a single numbering plan area, and assigned area code 305 as a destination routing code for Operator Toll Dialing. The southwest portion was split off in 1953 with

area code 813 Area codes 813 and 656 are area codes in the North American Numbering Plan for the U.S. state of Florida in the city of Tampa, Florida, and its surrounding areas, such as Zephyrhills and Oldsmar. In 2022, due to exhaustion of central office pre ...

. The northern half of Florida, including

, was assigned area code 904 in 1965. This configuration persisted through 1988, when the east coast of Florida from Palm Beach County north through Brevard County, as well as the Orlando metropolitan area was assigned area code 407. In 1995, central Florida surrounding Ocala and Gainesville was removed from 904 by the creation of area code 352. Later in 1995, the Florida Public Service Commission planned a three-way split to relieve the overcrowded 904 area code. In this plan, the Jacksonville area would be reassigned to the proposed area code 234, while the Daytona Beach LATA would be assigned

area code 386 Area code 386 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan in the U.S. state of Florida. The numbering plan area comprises the counties of Columbia County, Florida, Columbia, Flagler County, Florida, Flagler, Hamilton County, F ...

. The Pensacola, Panama City, and Tallahassee areas would have kept area code 904. Area codes 234 was eventually assigned to an

Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...

. Complaints from the public and businesses in the Jacksonville region, as well as opposition from NANPA and the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

, compelled the Florida PSC to adopt a different plan. The panhandle was assigned to area code 850, with Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, and the surrounding areas keeping area code 904. With the proliferation of cellular telephones, facsimile machines, pocket pagers, and other telephone devices, area code 904 was projected for exhaustion of central office prefixes within four years. Rapid population growth around Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, and the rural areas between Tallahassee and Jacksonville required separate area codes for each. During planning for this division, it was determined that the northwestern portion of the old 904 territory was growing too quickly to stay in 904, even though it was not growing as fast as were the areas closer to Jacksonville. Although this northwestern portion of 904 was not nearly large enough for its own area code, the two nearest area codes, 850 and 352, were growing too quickly to absorb this portion of 904. This left only three viable solutions: split the Jacksonville metropolitan area into two numbering plan areas, overlay 904 with a second code, mandating ten-digit dialing which was a new concept at the time, or create two noncontiguous sections of a new numbering plan area. The Florida Public Service Commission, which oversees telecommunication in Florida, opted for the latter solution, and these two noncontiguous sections received

in July 2001. Since 904 was projected to exhaust in 2024, a new area code, 324, was approved to serve the same geographic area of area code 904, since February 26, 2024, requiring ten-digit dialing. Permissive dialing began in August 2023. An alternative option that was considered was a boundary elimination overlay with 386 (erasing the 2001 split and its non-contiguous area) but that would result in a relatively short period of relief.

External links

References

Florida's Area code History
{{Area code box , Width=50% , State = FL , This =904/324 , N = 912 , S =

386 __NOTOC__ Year 386 (Roman numerals, CCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Euodius (or, less frequently, year 1139 ''Ab urbe condita''). ...

, 352 , E =

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, W =

, S1 = GA 904 904 Telecommunications-related introductions in 1965 Telecommunications-related introductions in 2024 1965 establishments in Florida

History

See also

External links

References