Area code 206 is a North American

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...

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, re ...

in the U.S. state of Washington serving

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

and most of its innermost suburbs. The numbering plan area (NPA) includes such suburbs as

Shoreline A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past ...

Lake Forest Park Lake Forest Park is a suburban city in King County, Washington, United States, located northeast of Seattle. It was developed in the 20th century as a bedroom community with single-family housing on medium to large-sized lots. Less than 4% of ...

, the islands of Mercer, Bainbridge, and Vashon, and portions of metropolitan Seattle from

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...

to Woodway. As of January 2017, 206 was one of the last urbanized numbering plan areas 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 ...

without an

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

, making Seattle one of the largest cities where calls could still be originated by seven-digit dialing. On January 28, 2017, area code 564 was activated as an overlay for most of the western portion of Washington, and ten-digit dialing became mandatory on July 29, 2017.

History

Area code 206 was one of the original area codes assigned in 1947, and originally covered the entire state of Washington. On January 1, 1957,

area code 509 Area code 509 is the telephone area code for the eastern two-thirds of the state of Washington. The western boundary of 509 roughly follows the Cascades. The 509 area code includes Spokane, the Tri-Cities ( Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick), ...

was assigned for the eastern two-thirds of Washington in a

flash-cut A flash cut, also called a flash cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period. In the United States, some telephone area codes were split or overlaid immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive dia ...

, with the split roughly following the Cascade Mountains. Despite western Washington's explosive growth in the second half of the 20th century, this configuration remained in place for 38 years. By the start of the 1990s, however, 206 was on the brink of exhaustion because of the Seattle area's continued growth, as well as the proliferation of cell phones, pagers, and fax machines. The supply of numbers was further limited because much of the southern portion of the old 206 territory (

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

, Centralia, Kelso, etc.) is part of the

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

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 ...

, meaning many numbers in Portland's area code 503 weren't available for use for those areas. Finally, on January 15, 1995, most of the old 206 territory outside of the Seattle/ Tacoma area split off as

area code 360 Area code 360 is the telephone area code for western Washington state outside metropolitan Seattle. It began service on January 15, 1995. The numbering plan area (NPA), which encompasses all of western Washington outside urban King, Pierce, and ...

, which was one of the first two area codes not conforming to the then-traditional N0X/N1X format. Numerous residents in the Seattle exurbs protested about no longer being associated with 206, leading

US West US West, Inc. (stylized as US WEST) was one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs, also referred to as "Baby Bells"), created in 1983 under the Modification of Final Judgement (''United States v. Western Electric Co., Inc.'' 552 ...

, now part of

Lumen Technologies Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, that offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice, and managed services. The company is a ...

, to transfer these areas back to 206 shortly after the split. As part of the reintegration, the cities of

and Woodway were both split between the new area codes, required by the capacity of the switching centers. However, 206 was on the brink of exhaustion even after the 360 split. The return of these exurbs, combined with the continued proliferation of cell phones, faxes, and pagers, hastened a three-way split of the 206 territory, effective on April 25, 1997. The southern portion, including Tacoma, received area code 253, while the northern portion, including Everett and the Eastside, was assigned area code 425.

References

{{coord, 47, 37, 9.37, N, 122, 20, 28.38, W, region:US, display=title

206 Year 206 ( CCVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Umbrius and Gavius (or, less frequently, year 959 ''Ab urbe condit ...

Telecommunications-related introductions in 1947

History

See also

References