Area code 206 is a

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

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 e ...

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 ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

serving

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

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 a ...

, Lake Forest Park, the islands of

Mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (car), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a large human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or trader, ...

, 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 Moines, ...

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 callin ...

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 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 ...

. On January 28, 2017,

area code 564 Area code 564 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Western Washington state, including the city of Seattle. The area code serves an overlay complex for a region that comprises the numbering plan areas 206, 253 ...

was activated as an overlay for most of the western portion of Washington, and

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 ...

became mandatory on July 29, 2017.

History

Area code 206 was one of the

original 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 speedin ...

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), E ...

was assigned for the eastern two-thirds of Washington in a flash-cut, with the split roughly following the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. 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 List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Centralia Centralia may refer to: Places Australia *Central Australia, sometimes called "Centralia" Canada * Centralia, Ontario ** RCAF Station Centralia, a former Royal Canadian Air Force training base ** Centralia (Essery Field) Aerodrome United State ...

, 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 (1929–2 ...

, 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 Area code 253 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for a part of the U.S. state of Washington, including the area south of Seattle and of the southern Puget Sound area, centered at Tacoma and extending to include ...

, while the northern portion, including Everett and the Eastside, was assigned

area code 425 Area code 425 is a telephone dialing code in Washington for the suburbs north and east of Seattle, particularly the Eastside, extending east to North Bend, north to Everett, and south to Maple Valley. It includes the city of Bellevue, Seattl ...

References

{{coord, 47, 37, 9.37, N, 122, 20, 28.38, W, region:US, display=title 206 206 Telecommunications-related introductions in 1947

History

See also

References