Image:Area code 202.svg, 350px, The red area is the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle (Washington, D.C.), Logan Circle, Jefferson Memoria ...

, served by area code 202. poly 0 50 49 54 103 84 111 88 101 107 118 130 143 139 179 140 211 188 238 203 260 240 259 248 248 250 255 262 253 357 1 357

Area codes 571 and 703 File:Area code 571.png, 400px, alt=area codes 571 and 703, The red-colored area is the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia served by area code 703 and its overlay code 571. poly 391 103 368 103 343 148 324 152 325 160 317 164 309 17 ...

poly 1 1 0 45 52 48 117 84 109 109 121 127 180 136 199 164 254 112 345 204 264 286 258 358 420 358 420 1

Area codes 240 and 301 image:Area code 301.png, 300px, alt=area codes 240 and 301 possibly 308. These numbers are related to the main zip codes of Maryland., Maryland consists of the red and blue areas. The red area indicates area codes 240 and 301. This map is clickabl ...

desc bottom-left Area codes 202 and 771 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, r ...

s 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 Washington, D.C. Area code 202 was one of the

original NANP area codes The original North American area codes were established by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1947, following the demonstration of regional Operator Toll Dialing during the World War II period. The program had the goal of speedi ...

established in October 1947 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 ...

. After the State of New Jersey with

area code 201 Area codes 201 and 551 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan in the U.S. State of New Jersey. Area code 201 was the area code assigned to the entire state of New Jersey in 1947, when the North American area code system ...

, the District of Columbia was the second numbering plan area (NPA). An NPA that comprises an entire state received a code in which the second digit was "0". Area code 771 was added as a second area code to the numbering plan area in April 2021 to create an all-services

overlay Overlay may refer to: Computers *Overlay network, a computer network which is built on top of another network *Hardware overlay, one type of video overlay that uses memory dedicated to the application *Another term for exec, replacing one process ...

History

Since the creation of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in 1947, most of the inner ring of the Washington metropolitan area has been a single local calling area, the Washington Metropolitan Exchange Area (WMEA). This is despite the fact that the WMEA was split between three numbering plan areas (NPAs): the District's 202, 301 in southern

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, and

703 __NOTOC__ Year 703 ( DCCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 703rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 703rd year of the 1st millennium, the 3 ...

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. From the 1950s to 1990, it was possible to complete local calls in the WMEA with only seven digits. The entire WMEA was reachable via long-distance services by dialing area code 202, for which purpose AT&T Long Lines had established cross-referenced operator routing codes for all affected central offices. This scheme was implemented via a system of central office code protection, in which central offices in the three numbering plan areas could not duplicate any central office prefixes for any of the three area codes in the WMEA. If a 1-202-574 number was in use in the District, the corresponding 1-703-574 number or 1-301-574 number could only be assigned to jurisdictions a safe distance from the metropolitan area, such as southwestern Virginia or the

Eastern Shore of Maryland The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies mostly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. Nine counties are normally included in the region. The Eastern Shore is part of the larger Delmarva Peninsula tha ...

. Conversely, if a 1-703-552 number was in use in Northern Virginia or a 1-301-552 Maryland suburbs, the corresponding 1-202-552 number could not be used in the District. By Spring 1990,

C&P Telephone The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, usually known as C&P Telephone, is a former d/b/a name for four Bell Operating Companies providing service to Washington, D.C., Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. Today, three of the companies ...

(later part of Bell Atlantic and now

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas ...

), the Regional Bell Operating Company for the District, advised the

North American Numbering Plan Administrator 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 ...

(NANPA) that the last

interchangeable central office code In the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), interchangeable NPA and central office codes constituted a change in numbering plan design and policy, to mitigate exhaustion of the numbering resources of the ten-digit telephone numbers used in the clo ...

in the area would be assigned in the second half of the year. The only remaining prefixes could not be assigned without breaking seven-digit dialing in the region, leading C&P to terminate the central office code protection scheme in order to make additional prefixes available for use. This change was implemented in a permissive dialing period from April 1, 1990, to October 1, 1990, at which time all home-NPA (HNPA) local calls maintained seven-digit dialing; all HNPA direct-dialed toll calls, required ''1'' and ten digits; foreign-NPA (FNPA) local calls were dialed with just the ten-digit number; FNPA direct dialed calls required dialing ''1'' and ten digits. Operator-assisted calls were all dialed as ''0'' and ten digits. The end of central office code protection was intended to allow numbers to be assigned in the Washington area that could not previously be assigned under the previous system. However, it did not provide enough relief to meet demand on either side of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

. By the end of 1990, the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland realized that 301 was on the brink of exhaustion even with the end of the central office code protection scheme. It filed to assign

area code 410 __NOTOC__ Year 410 (CDX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year after the Consulship of Honorius and Theodosius (or, less frequently, year 1163 ...

to most of Maryland from the

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

area eastward, effective October 5, 1991. In Virginia, the delay amounted to six years, until 1996, when area code 540 was installed for the western portion of the old 703 territory; permissive dialing ended January 27, 1996. The region's continued growth in the 1990s ultimately led to both suburban area codes being overlaid, with area code 240 overlaying 301 in 1997, and area code 571 overlaying 703 in 2000. Years after the introduction of

mobile number portability Mobile number portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network carrier to another. General overview Mobile number portability is implemented in varying ways across ...

, many cell phone customers on the Virginia and Maryland sides of the metro have 202 numbers. With 202 facing exhaustion in late 2022, the

announced in October 2020 that area code 771 would be added to the numbering plan area of the District of Columbia. The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia approved a plan to phase in the new area code over a 13-month period. 202 had been one of the few urbanized area codes without an overlay, making Washington one of the largest cities where seven-digit dialing was still possible. The installation of a second area code broke

seven-digit dialing Seven-digit dialing is a telephone dialing procedure customary in some territories of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for dialing telephone numbers in the same numbering plan area (NPA). NANP telephone numbers consist of ten digits, of wh ...

for calls within the District. The overlay implementation commenced with a permissive dialing period from April 10, 2021 to October 9, 2021, during which

ten-digit dialing Ten-digit dialing is a telephone dialing procedure in the countries and territories that are members of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). It is the practice of including the area code of a telephone number when dialing to initiate a telep ...

of 202-telephone numbers was optional. The first central office code assignments for 771 took place on November 8, 2021 for central office code 777, and on November 9 for 888.

Local calling

Even with the implementation of ten-digit dialing in the Washington metro, much of the Washington area is a toll-free calling zone, one of the largest in the eastern United States, covering large portions of Virginia and Maryland. Areas such as

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church,

McLean MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Goidelic languages, Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish language, Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John (given name), John). The clan surname is an A ...

and Tysons in Virginia ( Area codes 703 and 571) and Rockville,

Gaithersburg Gaithersburg ( ), officially the City of Gaithersburg, is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Gaithersburg had a population of 69,657, making it the ninth-largest location in the state. Ga ...

, Upper Marlboro, Bethesda and Landover in MarylandLocal calling guide: Washington Zone 4, MD
/ref> (

Area codes 301 and 240 image:Area code 301.png, 300px, alt=area codes 240 and 301 possibly 308. These numbers are related to the main zip codes of Maryland., Maryland consists of the red and blue areas. The red area indicates area codes 240 and 301. This map is clickabl ...

) are a local call to Washington.

References

External links

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202 Year 202 ( CCII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Antoninus (or, less frequently, year 955 '' Ab urbe condi ...

Telecommunications-related introductions in 1947

Washington, D.C.

History

Local calling

See also

References

External links