Area code 724 is a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania telephone area code in western and southwestern Pennsylvania, including most of the suburbs of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. It was split from area code 412 on February 1, 1998. Originally,

Bell Atlantic Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas i ...

wanted to implement 724 as an

overlay Overlay may refer to: Computers *Overlay network, a computer network which is built on top of another network *Hardware overlay, one type of video overlay that uses memory dedicated to the application *Another term for exec, replacing one process ...

of 412. However, overlays were still a new concept at the time, and met with some resistance due to the requirement for

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 ...

. For this reason, 724 was implemented as a split, with nearly all of the old 412 territory outside Allegheny County getting the new area code, making it one of the six pairs of "doughnut area codes" in the numbering plan. Within only two years, both 724 and 412 were on the verge of exhaustion due to the Pittsburgh area's rapid growth and the proliferation of cell phones and pagers. By this time, overlays had gained more acceptance, and

area code 878 Area code 878 is an overlay area code in Southwestern Pennsylvania, centered in Pittsburgh. It simultaneously overlays the region's two existing area codes, 412 and 724, making ten-digit dialing mandatory in the Pittsburgh area. 412 had served ...

was implemented as an

for both the 412 and 724 territories on August 17, 2001. Since that date,

has been mandatory in southwestern Pennsylvania. Number conserving practices allowed for 724 and 412 area code usage to be extended until April, 2013. The first 878 numbers were issued in April 2013, after 724 was exhausted (and the first 878 numbers in the 412 territory were issued a few years later). Major Locations in PA using this area code: Beaver, Butler, Cranberry Township, Ellwood City, Greensburg, Hermitage, Imperial, Indiana, Kittanning, Latrobe, New Castle, North Huntingdon, Oakdale, Sharon, Uniontown, Washington, Waynesburg, & Wexford.

Counties that use this area code

The 724 area code serves parts of fourteen counties in Pennsylvania.http://www.puc.state.pa.us/telecom/pdf/areacode/724_ACMap.pdf * Allegheny County (northern, eastern, and western edges) * Armstrong County (all except northeast portion) * Beaver County * Butler County *

Clarion County Clarion County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,241. Its county seat is Clarion. The county was formed on March 11, 1839, from parts of Venango and Armstrong counties. Clarion Cou ...

(portions of west) *

Crawford County Crawford County is the name of eleven counties in the United States: * Crawford County, Arkansas * Crawford County, Georgia * Crawford County, Illinois * Crawford County, Indiana * Crawford County, Iowa * Crawford County, Kansas * Crawford Count ...

(extreme southwestern portion only) * Fayette County * Greene County *

Indiana County Indiana County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the west central part of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,246. Its county seat is Indiana. Indiana County comprises the Indiana, PA Mi ...

(all except portions of east) * Lawrence County * Mercer County (all except northeastern portion) * Venango County (southeastern portion only) * Washington County * Westmoreland County (all except portion in extreme northeast) The master list of area codes for Pennsylvania can be found at

List of Pennsylvania area codes This is a list of telephone area codes in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 215: The city of Philadelphia and its immediately surrounding areas in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania directly to its north 223: Overlay plan with 717 267: Ove ...

References

External links

List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 724 Care Area Code
{{DEFAULTSORT:Area Code 724 Telecommunications-related introductions in 1998

724 __NOTOC__ Year 724 ( DCCXXIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 724 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...