Area code 865
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Area code 865 serves
Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...
, and the nine surrounding counties (
Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson ...
, Blount,
Grainger Grainger may refer to: Places *Grainger, Alberta, a locality in Canada *Grainger County, Tennessee, a county located in Tennessee, United States *Grainger Falls, a waterfall in Chalky Inland, Fiordland, New Zealand *Grainger Market, a covered mark ...
,
Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...
, Knox, Loudon, Roane, Sevier, and
Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
) in central
East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
. The area incorporates most of the region defined as the Knoxville-
Sevierville Sevierville ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, located in eastern Tennessee. The population was 17,889 at the 2020 United States Census. History Native Americans of the Woodland period were among the first human ...
- La Follette
Combined Statistical Area Combined statistical area (CSA) is a United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) term for a combination of adjacent metropolitan (MSA) and micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) across the 50 US states and the territory of Puerto Ric ...
. Cities in the 865 area include Knoxville,
Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary ...
, Bean Station, Clinton,
Gatlinburg Gatlinburg is a mountain resort city in Sevier County, Tennessee, United States. It is located southeast of Knoxville and had a population of 3,944 at the 2010 Census and a U.S. Census population of 3,577 in 2020. It is a popular vacation resort ...
, Harriman,
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 ...
, Kingston, Lenoir City, Maryville, Maynardville, Norris, Oak Ridge,
Pigeon Forge Pigeon Forge is a mountain resort city in Sevier County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 6,343. Situated just 5 miles (8 km) north of Great Smoky Mountains National Par ...
, Plainview, Rockwood, Rutledge,
Sevierville Sevierville ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, located in eastern Tennessee. The population was 17,889 at the 2020 United States Census. History Native Americans of the Woodland period were among the first human ...
and
Townsend Townsend (pronounced tounʹ-zənd) or Townshend may refer to: Places United States *Camp Townsend, National Guard training base in Peekskill, New York *Townsend, Delaware *Townsend, Georgia *Townsend, Massachusetts, a New England town ** Townsend ...
.


History

When planning of the area code system concluded in 1947,
area code 901 Area code 901 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Memphis, Tennessee, and most of its inner-ring suburbs. it is the smallest numbering plan area in the state. History Area code 901 was one of the original Nort ...
was assigned as the sole area code for Tennessee. In 1954, the numbering plan area was restricted to
West Tennessee West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions (Tennessee), Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee River, Tennessee and Miss ...
, while everything east of the
Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...
received the new
area code 615 Area codes 615 and 629 are area codes in Tennessee serving Nashville ( Davidson County) and the 12 surrounding counties. 615 is the main area code, while 629 is an overlay covering the same area that began service in 2014. Murfreesboro, Frankli ...
. This division remained in place for 41 years, until
area code 423 Area code 423 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for the U.S. state of Tennessee. It comprises two disconnected areas of East Tennessee that are separated by area code 865. Principal cities in the northern part of the ...
was created as the area code for most of
East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
, with 615 restricted to
Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the s ...
. The state's three area codes were now roughly coextensive with the
Grand Divisions of Tennessee The Grand Divisions are three geographic regions in the U.S. state of Tennessee, each constituting roughly one-third of the state's land area, that are geographically, culturally, legally, and economically distinct. The Grand Divisions are lega ...
. This was intended as a long-term solution. However, within only three years, 423 was already on the brink of exhaustion due to the proliferation of cell phones and pagers. With the prospect of 423 being exhausted by 1999, it soon became apparent that East Tennessee needed another area code, even though this would have forced some residents to change their numbers for the second time in a decade. The
Tennessee Regulatory Authority The Tennessee Public Utility Commission (TPUC) is the Tennessee governmental unit charged with the responsibility of setting rates and service standards for privately owned telephone, natural gas, electric, and water utilities. History The Tennes ...
requested that the code 865 be assigned to Knoxville when the area was split from 423. This was because on a standard telephone keypad, the numbers 865 correspond to the letters ''VOL,'' the commonly used short version of Volunteers, which is the formal nickname of the sports teams at the
University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...
. Normally, when an area code is split, the largest city in an existing numbering plan area keeps the original code—in this case, Knoxville. When plans were drawn up for the split, it was decided that the Tri-Cities were not large enough for their own area code, but were too large to follow Knoxville into 865. This left the Tennessee Regulatory Authority with two options–turn 865 into 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 ...
for all of East Tennessee, or make two non-contiguous sections of 423. Overlays were a new concept at the time, and met with some resistance due to the need 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 ...
. The Regulatory Authority chose the second option. 865 began its split on October 1, 1999; permissive dialing of 423 continued throughout East Tennessee until February 1, 2000.Tennessee Regulatory Authority press release
April 29, 1999 This resulted in 423 becoming one of the few non-contiguous area codes in the country; 865 is now almost entirely surrounded by the two sections of 423. On October 24, 2021, area code 865 was transitioned 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 ...
, despite not being part of an overlay numbering plan, in which multiple area codes are assigned to a numbering plan area. The area code 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 still permitted
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 ...
.


See also


References


External links


List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 865 Area Code
{{DEFAULTSORT:Area Code 865
865 __NOTOC__ Year 865 ( DCCCLXV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Louis the German divides the East Frankish Kingdom among his three sons. C ...
865 __NOTOC__ Year 865 ( DCCCLXV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Louis the German divides the East Frankish Kingdom among his three sons. C ...
Knoxville metropolitan area