Area codes 314 and 557 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, re ...

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) 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 ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, serving St. Louis and most of its inner-ring suburbs in neighboring St. Louis County. The numbering plan area is bordered to the west by area code 636, which serves St. Louis' outer suburbs to the west, south, and north. Across the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

to the east, 314 is adjacent to

area code 618 Area code 618 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for southern Illinois. One hundred and twenty-six municipalities are included in the numbering plan such as Carbondale, Cairo, Belleville, East St. Louis, Edwa ...

, which serves

southern Illinois Southern Illinois, also known as Little Egypt, is the southern third of Illinois, principally along and south of Interstate 64. Although part of a Midwestern state, this region is aligned in culture more with that of the Upland South than the Mi ...

and most of

Metro East Metro East is a region in southern Illinois that contains eastern and northern suburbs and exurbs of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It encompasses five Southern Illinois counties (and parts of three others) in the St. Louis Metropolitan Stati ...

. Area code 557 was added to the 314 numbering plan area on August 12, 2022, to form an overlay numbering plan.

History

When the

American Telephone and Telegraph Company 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 tel ...

(AT&T) created a universal North American telephone numbering plan for

Operator Toll Dialing Operator Toll Dialing was a telephone call routing and toll-switching system for the Bell System and the independent telephone companies in the United States and Canada that was developed in the 1940s. It automated the switching and billing of lon ...

in 1947, Missouri was divided into two numbering plan areas (NPAs), which received the area codes 314 and 816. Area code 314 identified the eastern part of the state, from the northeast corner of the state at the Illinois border along a southwestern line near

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

and

Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the capital of Missouri, United States. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 census, ranking as the 15th most populous city in the state. It is also the county seat of Cole County and the princip ...

to the center of the state, and continuing southeast into the east side of the West Plains area to the Arkansas state line. The largest city of the area code was St. Louis on the Mississippi river in the east. By 1995, the telephone subscriber base experience substantial growth, threatening the exhaustion of the numbering pool. Relief planning entailed the division of the numbering plan area to create a new area code, 573, for most areas outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area, which would retained area code 314. The area code split became effective at day end of January 7, 1996, with a permissive dialing period commencing until July 7, 1996, during which the new numbering plan area could be dialed with both area codes. Although area code splits were intended as long-term solutions, within only two years, 314 was close to exhaustion once again due to the proliferation of cell phones, fax machines and pagers in St. Louis. As a result, 314 was reduced to include only the exchanges of Chestnut, Jefferson, Prospect, Flanders, Forest, Mission, Melrose, Webster Groves, Parkview, Evergreen, Riverview, Ferguson, Overland, Ladue, Kirkwood, Sappington, Mehlville, Oakville, Creve Coeur, Bridgeton, Hazelwood, Florissant, and Spanish Lake in the core of the St. Louis area. All other exchanges were reassigned to the new area code 636, effective May 22, 1999, with the permissive dialing period ending on February 26, 2000. On October 24, 2000, the

Missouri Public Service Commission The Missouri Public Service Commission regulates investor-owned telephone, electric, natural gas, steam, water, and sewer utilities in the state of Missouri. Manufacturers and retail dealers who sell new and used manufactured homes and modular u ...

announced plans to add a second area code for the 314 numbering plan area, creating an overlay, but postponed the implementation date (May 5, 2002) indefinitely on September 25, 2001, when the commission determined no immediate need for additional central office prefixes. Conservation measures, such as

number pooling Number pooling is a method of reallocating telephony numbering space in the North American Numbering Plan, primarily in growth areas in the United States. Instead of allocating blocks of ten thousand numbers to each carrier in each community, a bl ...

, mitigated the immediate need for relief. More than twenty years after that announcement, area code 557 was overlaid on August 12, 2022, as the available numbers in 314 neared exhaustion. Prior to October 2021, area code 314 had telephone numbers assigned for the

central office code 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 calli ...

988. In 2020, ''988'' was designated nationwide as a dialing code for the

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 200+ crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 9- ...

, which created a conflict for exchanges that permit

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 ...

. This area code was therefore scheduled to transition to

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 ...

by October 24, 2021.

References

External links

List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 314 Area Code
{{Coord, 38.62, -90.22, format=dms, display=title, type:adm3rd_region:US-MO 314 St. Louis St. Louis County, Missouri 314 Telecommunications-related introductions in 1947

History

See also

References

External links