Image:Area code 804.png, The area colored red indicates the geographical region of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

served by area code 804 poly 64 0 54 9 40 24 28 57 13 58 12 77 31 106 40 109 48 106 68 123 75 117 96 127 99 121 126 122 134 110 126 103 137 78 156 78 177 40 197 40 217 1 251 12 265 6 268 8 280 0

Area codes 304 and 681 Area codes 304 and 681 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the entirety of the U.S. state of West Virginia. The numbering plan area was established in October 1947 with area code 304, as one of the eighty-s ...

poly 391 103 368 103 343 148 324 152 325 160 317 164 309 174 311 177 302 178 364 181 385 161

Area codes 757 and 948 Image:Area code 757.png, The area colored red indicates the southeast corner of Virginia served by area code 757 poly 60 2 11 58 12 78 32 106 40 109 45 105 68 123 73 119 95 128 97 122 126 124 132 110 127 103 139 79 154 79 176 42 197 41 217 1 250 ...

desc top-left Area code 804 is the 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 ...

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) for the east-central portion of

. The numbering plan area is anchored by Virginia's capital, Richmond, and includes most of its metropolitan area. Other communities included are Chesterfield, Henrico, Hopewell, Mechanicsville, Powhatan,

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east- central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinbur ...

Petersburg Petersburg, or Petersburgh, may refer to: Places Australia *Petersburg, former name of Peterborough, South Australia Canada * Petersburg, Ontario Russia *Saint Petersburg, sometimes referred to as Petersburg United States *Peterborg, U.S. Virg ...

, and Colonial Heights. This also includes the Northern Neck and the

Middle Peninsula The Middle Peninsula is the second of three large peninsulas on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the Middle Peninsula was home to 92,886 people. It lies between the Northern Neck and ...

. The two southernmost counties on the Middle Peninsula,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of t ...

and Mathews, are part of the

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...

metropolitan area, but use 804 instead of the area code 757 used by the rest of Hampton Roads. Area code 804 was split from Virginia's original area code 703 on Sunday, June 24, 1973, with an official permissive dialing period ending January 1, 1974. Originally, it stretched across the eastern two-thirds of the state, from Danville to the

Eastern Shore Eastern Shore may refer to: * Eastern Shore (Nova Scotia), a region * Eastern Shore (electoral district), a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia * Eastern Shore of Maryland, a region * Eastern Shore of Virginia, a region * Eastern Shore (Al ...

. Normally, when an area code is split, the largest city in the old numbering plan area retains the old area code–in this case,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...

, then Virginia's largest city. However, C&P Telephone (now part of

Verizon 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 in ...

) wanted to keep the large number of federal agencies in

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is a widespread region radiating westward and southward from Washington, D.C. Wit ...

from having to change their numbers. Despite the rapid growth of the Richmond-Petersburg and Hampton Roads areas, this configuration remained in place for 23 years. On July 1, 1996, the Eastern Shore and most of Hampton Roads became area code 757. Although Hampton Roads is the largest metropolitan area based in the Commonwealth, Bell Atlantic (forerunner of Verizon) decided to let Richmond keep 804 in order to spare the plethora of state agencies in the capital the expense and burden of having to change their numbers. This split was intended as a long-term solution, but by the turn of the century and millennium 804 was running out of numbers due to the rapid growth of the Richmond area, as well as the proliferation of cell phones and pagers. As a result, 804 was split again on June 1, 2001, when most of the western portion (Danville, Lynchburg,

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen ...

) became area code 434. Prior to October 2021, area code 804 had telephone numbers assigned for the central office code 988. In 2020, ''988'' was designated nationwide as a dialing code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which created a conflict for exchanges that permit seven-digit dialing. This area code was therefore scheduled to transition to ten-digit dialing by October 24, 2021. The 804 area code is predicted to run out of telephone numbers in the third quarter of 2024. The

State Corporation Commission The State Corporation Commission, or SCC, is a Virginia (USA) regulatory agency whose authority encompasses utilities, insurance, state-chartered financial institutions, securities, retail franchising, and railroads. It is the state's central filin ...

(SCC) announced on November 16, 2022, that it will overlay the existing area code, likely in the first half of 2024. On November 22, 2022, the SCC approved the new area code 686 to be implemented after the numbers in area code 804 have been exhausted.

References

External links

List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 804 Area Code
{{DEFAULTSORT:Area Code 804 804 Richmond, Virginia 804 1973 establishments in Virginia

See also

References

External links