Area code 606 is a

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

area code serving the eastern half of south-central and all of the eastern part of the

Commonwealth of Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. Cities and towns in the area code include Ashland, Morehead, Hazard, Middlesboro,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, Stanford,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Corbin Corbin may refer to: People * Corbin (given name) * Corbin (surname) * Corbin (musician), American singer Buildings * Corbin Building, a historic building located at 192 Broadway in New York, US * Corbin Cabin, a log structure in Shenandoah ...

, Greenup,

Paintsville Paintsville () is a home rule-class city along Paint Creek in Johnson County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 3,459 during the 2010 U.S. Census. History A Paint Lick Station was referred to in ...

, Pikeville and Maysville. Most of its service area lies within the Kentucky region known as the

Eastern Kentucky Coalfield The Eastern Kentucky Coalfield is part of the Central Appalachian bituminous coalfield, including all or parts of 30 Kentucky counties and adjoining areas in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee. It covers an area from the Allegheny M ...

. It runs along the entire length of the state's borders with

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

and

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

. It was created in 1954 as a split from

area code 502 Area code 502 serves north central Kentucky, primarily Louisville, its suburbs, and the state capital, Frankfort. Its service area encompasses the following Kentucky counties (the boundary closely, but not exactly, tracks county lines): * And ...

, and originally covered the entire eastern half of Kentucky, as far west as Lexington and

Northern Kentucky Northern Kentucky is the third-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky after Louisville and Lexington, and its cities and towns serve as the de facto "south side" communities of Cincinnati, Ohio. The three main counties ...

(the Kentucky side of the

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

area). Notably, it was one of the first three area codes with "0" as the middle digit that were not assigned to an entire state; the others were

area code 507 Area code 507 is the telephone numbering plan code for the southern fifth of Minnesota, including cities such as Rochester, Mankato, Worthington, Fairmont, Albert Lea, Northfield, and Austin. It was the third area code created for use in the ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

and area code 607 in New York. In 1999, most of the northwestern portion of the old 606 territory, including Lexington and Northern Kentucky, split off as

area code 859 Area code 859 serves the city of Lexington and the central portion of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It was created in a split from area code 606 in 1999. Its service area encompasses the following Kentucky counties (the boundary closely, but n ...

. Conventional wisdom suggested that Lexington and Northern Kentucky should have kept 606. Lexington was by far the largest city in the old area code. Combined, Lexington and Northern Kentucky accounted for almost two-thirds of the old 606's population. When an area code is split, normal practice calls for the largest city to retain the old area code. However, the rural portion of 606 is one of the poorest areas of the nation; 16 of the 100 poorest counties in the nation by median income are in 606. The

Kentucky Public Service Commission The Kentucky Public Service Commission is the public utilities commission for the State of Kentucky. The commission is a quasi-judicial regulatory tribunal. It regulates the intrastate rates and services of investor-owned electric, natural gas, te ...

and

BellSouth BellSouth, LLC (stylized as ''BELLSOUTH'' and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after ...

(now part of

AT&T 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 ...

), the dominant carrier in the area at the time, decided to let the rural portion retain 606 in order to spare residents and businesses in this notoriously impoverished area the expense and burden of having to change their numbers, which would have also required ''en masse'' reprogramming of cell phones. Also, 859 on a standard telephone keypad can be translated into "UKY", a reference to the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

, the state's flagship institution of higher learning, located in Lexington. With the great majority of the old 606's landlines and cell phones transferring to 859, the split left 606 as one of the most thinly populated area codes in the country. It is not currently projected to exhaust until about 2043.

Central office prefixes

Note: This area code has a central office number assigned to Danville, (606-661) which is mostly served by the 859 area code.

References

External links

List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 606 Area Code
{{Area code box , State = KY , This = area code 606 , N = 937/326, 740/220,

513 __NOTOC__ Year 513 ( DXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Probus and Clementinus (or, less frequently, year 1266 ...

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931 Year 931 ( CMXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, cedes Lower Burgundy to Rudolph II, in re ...

, E = 304/681,

276 __NOTOC__ Year 276 ( CCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tacitus and Aemilianus (or, less frequently, year 1029 ...

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859 __FORCETOC__ Year 859 ( DCCCLIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * January 15 – Battle of St. Quentin: Frankish forces, led by Humfrid, d ...

, 270/364 , S1 = OH , S2 = TN , S3 = VA , S4 = WV

606 __NOTOC__ Year 606 ( DCVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 606 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...

Telecommunications-related introductions in 1954