![Missouri area code map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Missouri_area_code_map.gif)
Area code 816 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
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
,
St. Joseph
Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...
, and all or part of 15 surrounding counties in northwestern
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 ...
. The numbering plan area originally comprised most of the northern and western two-thirds of the state, bordering with
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
,
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
,
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
,
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
, and
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
, but has been reduced to a ribbon bordering Kansas. 816 is one of the
original 86 area codes created in 1947.
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 te ...
(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 lo ...
in 1947, Missouri was divided into two numbering plan areas (NPAs). Area code 816 served points generally north and west of
Columbia 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 principa ...
, while
area code 314
Area codes 314 and 557 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in the U.S. state of Missouri, serving St. Louis and most of its inner-ring suburbs in neighboring St. Louis County. The numbering plan area is bordered ...
served the eastern third of the state, including
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
. In 1951, a third NPA with
area code 417
Area code 417 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the southwestern quadrant of Missouri, including the cities of Branson, Carl Junction, Carthage, Joplin, Lebanon, Neosho, Nixa, Ozark, Springfield, and ...
was created for southwestern Missouri, including the cities of
Branson Branson may refer to:
Places
;Canada
* Branson, Toronto
;United States
* Branson, Missouri, a popular tourist destination in the Ozark Mountains
* Branson, Colorado
* Branson City, California
* The Branson School, in Ross, California
* Warrenpoi ...
,
Joplin, and
Springfield. This reduced 816 to the northern third of Missouri, including the
Kansas City metropolitan area
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...
. Despite roughly doubling the population in the
Kansas City metropolitan area
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...
during the second half of the 20th century, area code 816 retained its 1951 boundaries for 45 years.
By late 1996, the proliferation of
cell phones
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
and market reforms related to
deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
by the
Telecommunications Act of 1996
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of t ...
required an additional area code for northern Missouri. On April 10, 1997, Southwestern Bell declared a Jeopardy Situation with the Missouri Public Service Commission (MPSC), which oversees telecommunications in the state, and the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA). On July 28, 1997, Bellcore and the NANPA, announced an area code split, in which the Kansas City metropolitan area and the
St. Joseph
Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...
area would retain area code 816, while the remainder of the NPA would receive the new
area code 660
Area code 660 is the telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northern and western part of the U.S. state of Missouri. It was created on October 12, 1997, in an area code split of the 816 numbering plan area (NPA)
...
. Area code 660 comprised the rural eastern and northwestern portions of the then-current 816 area to minimize disruption to subscribers in the more densely populated urban areas. The rate centers of
Lexington (259) and
Warrensburg (429) moved to 660, despite being generally considered a part of the Kansas City area.
On June 4, 1997, the MPSC announced the split for October 12, 1997, with a permissive dialing period ending on April 19, 1998, during which calls could be placed with either area code.
In 2000, the Missouri PSC announced plans to create an
overlay plan
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 ...
for the numbering plan area. On February 20, 2001, the overlay was approved by the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA), by assigning area code 975 for service starting October 20, 2001, which was later postponed to May 5, 2002. The subsequent implementation of code preservation 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 ...
, eliminated the immediate need for additional central office prefixes, prompting the MPSC to suspend implementation indefinitely. Despite Kansas City's continued growth, the Kansas City area was served by only 816 for over twenty additional years.
Prior to October 2021, area code 816 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.
An October 2021 exhaust analyses by the NANPA projected central office code exhaustion by 2023. As a result, an overlay with area code 975 is scheduled for October 13, 2023.
Service area
Major cities
*
Blue Springs
*
Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
*
Grandview
*
Independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
*
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
*
Lee's Summit
Lee's Summit is a city located within the counties of Jackson (primarily) and Cass in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As of the 2020 census its population was 101,108, making it the sixth-largest city in both ...
*
Liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
*
North Kansas City
North Kansas City is a city in Clay County, Missouri, United States. It is also enclaved in Kansas City. Even though the name is similar to its larger counterpart, Kansas City, it is an independent municipality part of the Kansas City metropo ...
*
Platte City
*
Raymore
*
Raytown
*
Smithville
*
St. Joseph
Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...
*
Kearney
Other cities
*
Archie
*
Belton
*
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
*
Freeman
Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to:
* a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm
* Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies
* Free ...
*
Garden City
*
Greenwood
*
Harrisonville
*
Holden
Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thre ...
*
Peculiar
*
Pleasant Hill
*
Savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...
References
External links
List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 816 Area CodeHistory
{{Coord, 39.2, -94.4, format=dms, display=title, region:US-MO_scale:2000000
816
__NOTOC__
Year 816 (Roman numerals, DCCCXVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Europe
* October 5 – King Louis the Pious (son of Charlemagne) is crow ...
816
__NOTOC__
Year 816 (Roman numerals, DCCCXVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Europe
* October 5 – King Louis the Pious (son of Charlemagne) is crow ...
Telecommunications-related introductions in 1947