Area code 574 is a 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, rea ...

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 ...

(NANP) for the northern part of 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 sover ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. It was created in a three-way

area code split In telecommunications, an area code split is the practice of introducing a new telephone area code by geographically dividing an existing numbering plan area (NPA), and assigning area codes to the resulting divisions, but retaining the existing ar ...

from

area code 219 Area code 219 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for Northwest Indiana, including the state's portion of the Chicago metropolitan area, which includes Lake, Porter, La Porte, Newton, and Jasper Counties. The area code ...

in 2002.

History

In 1947,

American Telephone and Telegraph AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...

(AT&T) published the first configuration of proposed numbering plan areas (NPAs) for a new nationwide numbering and toll call routing system. Indiana was divided to receive two area codes.

Area code 317 Area codes 317 and 463 are North American Numbering Plan area codes for Indianapolis and nine surrounding counties in central Indiana. It covers all or part of Marion, Boone, Hancock, Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, Madison, Morgan, and Shelby c ...

served the northern two-thirds of Indiana, while

area code 812 Area codes 812 and 930 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the southern third of the state of Indiana. The numbering plan area (NPA) includes Evansville and most of its suburbs, the Indiana portions of the ...

served the southern third. In the first change of the original plan in 1948, 317 was cut back to central Indiana, while the northern third of Indiana, including Gary, Hammond, East Chicago,

South Bend South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

, Elkhart and

Fort Wayne Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

, received area code 219. The northern third of Indiana was served by area code 219 for 54 years. By the end of the 20th century, 219 was on the verge of exhaustion of central office prefixes. It was decided to implement a three-way split of the 219 territory. As the result of a random drawing, the middle portion, surrounding South Bend, received area code 574. The eastern portion (

) became

area code 260 Area code 260 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Indiana. Cities served include Angola, Auburn, Bluffton, Butler, Columbia City, Decatur, Fort Wayne, Huntington, ...

, while

Northwest Indiana Northwest Indiana, nicknamed The Region after the Calumet Region, comprises Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and Jasper counties in Indiana. This region neighbors Lake Michigan and is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. According to the 2020 Ce ...

retained 219. The area codes split on January 15, 2002, with

permissive dialing In North America, permissive dialing is the ability to make phone calls in an area subject to a newly introduced area code by using both the new and preexisting dialing methods. When an area is given a new area code under a split plan, the area's ...

continuing until June 14, 2002. SBC information. Accessed May 11, 2006 Prior to October 2021, area code 574 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 calling ...

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 Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preven ...

, 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 wh ...

. 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

{{Coord, 41.281935, -86.421433, display=title, scale:200000 574 574