Area Code 623

North American area code 623 is a state of Arizona telephone area code serving most of the western portion of the Phoenix metropolitan area. It was created in a split from area code 602 on March 1, 1999, when it was evident that the Valley of the Sun was expanding too rapidly to remain in one area code. Generally, the West Valley and the outer northwestern suburbs became 623, the eastern suburbs and the Phoenix neighborhood of Ahwatukee became area code 480, and inner Phoenix remained in 602.

Although most of the state outside the Valley had been split off as area code 520 in 1995, the Valley's continued explosive growth and the proliferation of cell phones and pagers brought 602 to the brink of exhaustion far sooner than expected. In November 1998, the Arizona Corporation Commission decided to overlay the Valley with a second area code, 480. However, overlays were still a new concept at the time, and met with resistance due to the need for ten-digit dialing. The outcry led the Corporation Commission to change the proposal to a three-way split which took effect in 1999.

623 covers areas including Glendale (except the section north of the Arizona Canal and south of Union Hills, which remained in 602), Peoria (except northwest near Vistancia and Lake Pleasant, which is in 928), Sun City, Sun City West, El Mirage, Surprise, Youngtown, Avondale, Cashion, Tolleson, Goodyear, and Buckeye, as well as some of western Phoenix, specifically the city north of Union Hills and west of the 2000 E Grid, south of the Arizona Canal from 43rd Ave to 39th Ave, west of 39th Ave from the Arizona Canal south to Maryland Ave, along 43rd Ave from Maryland to Indian School, diagonally southwest from 43rd Ave & Indian School to 63rd Ave & Interstate 10, then south along 63rd Ave to the Salt River and then the Gila River Indian Reservation. The 602/623 boundary runs roughly diagonally through northern Glendale.

The three Valley area codes form one of the largest local calling areas in the western United States. With the exception of the slivers of the Valley that are in the 520 and 928 area codes, no long-distance charges are applied from one portion of the Valley to another. Even with the split into three area codes, much of the Valley is still part of the Phoenix rate center.

Despite the Phoenix area's rapid growth, 623 is nowhere near exhaustion. Should the current boundaries of 623 remain in place, the West Valley would not be projected to need another area code for the foreseeable future. This is in contrast to the other two metropolitan area codes; in 2021, 623 had 299 assigned central office codes as opposed to more than 700 in each of 480 and 602. After the North American Numbering Plan Administrator initiated relief planning for 480, which will exhaust in 2024 (with 602 projected to exhaust only two years later), the state's telecommunications industry recommended to the Arizona Corporation Commission that the 1999 area code boundaries be eliminated, creating a three-code overlay complex and allowing the assignment of new numbers (primarily from 623) throughout the Phoenix rate center. This would save the assignment of two area codes and last 26 years, as opposed to 35 for the introduction of new area codes in the form of all-services distributed overlays of each of 480 and 602. The Corporation Commission recommended this plan on November 9, 2021. Implementation began in August 2022, after the national deadline to activate 988, with a six-month permissive 10-digit dialing period for the 602 and 623 areas to begin at some point in January 2023 ahead of the overlay becoming effective in August of that year; by then, recorded messages will pass on to callers dialling the old method. That plan was approved in early 2022 and the combined overlay will take effect on September 12, 2023.

See also

* List of NANP area codes
*North American Numbering Plan

References

External links

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