Area code 318 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 and central parts of the U.S. state of

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. The area code was created in 1957 in a split of Louisiana's original

area code 504 Area code 504 is a telephone area code that covers greater New Orleans, Louisiana. Besides New Orleans itself (Orleans Parish), it includes all of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes and most of Jefferson Parish. 504 was one of the origina ...

. Originally, it covered nearly all of the state west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, stretching from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

north to the border 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 ...

. In 1999, the southern half of the "original" 318, including

Lafayette Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to: People * Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette * House of La Fayette, a French noble family ** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757� ...

and Lake Charles, became

area code 337 In the North American Numbering Plan, telephone area code 337 covers southwestern Louisiana. It was created in 1999. Until 1999/2000, this area was the southern half of area code 318, which had covered most of Louisiana west of the Mississippi ...

. Further relief will likely be required by 2025 (likely with Louisiana's first

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 ...

), as 318 is expected to exhaust by early 2026.

Service area

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

* Bastrop *

Bossier City Bossier City ( ) is a city in Bossier Parish in the northwestern region of the U.S. state of Louisiana in the United States. It is the second most populous city in the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan statistical area. In 2020, it had a ...

* Boyce * Bunkie * Dixie Inn * Ferriday * Farmerville *

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

* Jonesboro * Mansfield * Many * Marksville *

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...

* Monroe * Natchitoches * Rayville * Ruston * Rosefield * Saint Joseph *

Sarepta Sarepta (near modern Sarafand, Lebanon) was a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tyre, also known biblically as Zarephath. It became a bishopric, which faded, and remains a double (Latin and Maronite) Catholic tit ...

* Shreveport * Simmesport * Springhill * Tallulah * Vidalia *

Waterproof Waterproofing is the process of making an object or structure waterproof or water-resistant so that it remains relatively unaffected by water or resisting the ingress of water under specified conditions. Such items may be used in wet environme ...

* West Monroe *

Winnfield Winnfield is a small city in, and the parish seat of, Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census, and 4,840 in 2010. Three governors of the state of Louisiana were from Winnfield.

* Winnsboro

Prior use

During the initial trials of

direct distance dialing Direct distance dialing (DDD) is a telecommunication service feature in North America by which a caller may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area. Direct dialing by subscribers typically requires extra d ...

in 1951, the code 318 had been temporarily assigned as a pseudo area code for

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Oakland and San Francisco had separate toll switches, so calls had to be routed accordingly depending on the final destination. As the telephone equipment used at the time handled only three-digit translation, the temporary use of an area code, 318, was required to distinguish between the two Bay Area cities. Area code 318 temporarily was used to specify San Francisco and areas north of the Golden Gate Bridge, while calls with destinations in Oakland or the East Bay used

area code 415 Area codes 415 and 628 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the city of San Francisco and its northern suburbs in Marin County (across the Golden Gate), and the northeast corner of San Mateo County in the U.S. ...

. When the electromechanical Card-Translator box became available by 1953, translations using six digits were possible; the 318 code no longer was required. The entire

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

returned to using area code 415; in 1991,

510 __NOTOC__ Year 510 ( DX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severinus without colleague (or, less frequently ...

split off from 415; by 2015, area code 628 was added as an overlay.

References

External links

NANPA: Louisiana area code map
{{coord missing, Louisiana Telecommunications-related introductions in 1957 318 318 Shreveport, Louisiana

Service area

Prior use

See also

References

External links