Area code 770 is a

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables 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 ...

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 an integrated 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, World Numbering Zone ...

(NANP) serving all or part of 29 counties in North

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, including most of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

's suburbs. It was created in 1995 in a split of numbering plan area (NPA) 404.

History

When the North American Numbering Plan was created in October 1947, all of Georgia was served by area code 404. In 1954, 404 was reduced to the northern half of the state, with Macon and points south splitting off as

area code 912 Area code 912 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. The numbering plan area contains Savannah, Richmond Hill, Hinesville, Vidalia, Metter, Reidsville, H ...

. The remaining 404 territory remained unchanged until 1992, when most of the area outside of the immediate

Atlanta metropolitan area Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the sixt ...

was split off with area code 706. This was intended as a long-term solution to relieve number shortages in exchanges in North Georgia. When 706 was created, it included several fast-growing

exurb An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburbs, suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing-density, and rela ...

s of Atlanta. Residents of these areas complained about no longer being associated with the better-known area code 404, prompting BellSouth to return these areas to 404 soon after the split. However, even before the creation of 706, 404 was close to exhaustion due to the proliferation of

cell phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

fax machine Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other out ...

s, and pagers in the fast-growing Atlanta area. BellSouth and the Georgia Public Service Commission were well aware of this, and had already planned to create a new area code for the Atlanta suburbs later in the decade. However, the restoration of the exurban areas from 706 forced further relief action sooner than anticipated. As a result, just three years later, in 1995, almost all of Atlanta's suburban ring was split off as area code 770. Atlanta was the first city in the United States to have mandatory ten-digit dialing throughout its metro area, roughly coinciding with the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in Atlanta. Atlanta was used as the test case not only for its size, but also because it enjoyed the world's largest

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

bundle at the time (five times that of New York), and it was home to BellSouth (now part of

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

), then the Southeastern Regional Bell Operating Company. An additional NPA was added to both metro Atlanta overlay areas in 2022. Area code 943 entered service on March 15, 2022.

Service area

Numbering plan area 770 completely surrounds 404. The two plan areas are separated roughly by Interstate 285, known locally as the Perimeter. Generally, 770 includes most of the metro area outside the Perimeter, while 404 serves Atlanta itself and most suburbs inside the Perimeter; a few cities are split between the two codes. Both codes are overlaid by 678, 470, and 943. The metro Atlanta region (404, 770, 678/470/943) is one of the largest local calling areas in the United States; with few exceptions, no long-distance charges are applied for calls from one portion of the metro to the other. Parts of 706/762 and north

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

's 256/938 are local calls to Atlanta as well. When the Atlanta area was originally divided in 1995, most cellphones stayed with 404, which balanced the fact that most of the

landline A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...

area went to 770. Area code 770 serves a numbering plan area that comprises the counties of Barrow, Bartow, Butts, Carroll,

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

, Clayton (part with

area code 404 Area code 404 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Atlanta, Georgia and its closest suburbs. This comprises roughly the area encircled by Interstate 285. It is an enclave area code, surrounded by area code 770 ...

), Cobb, Coweta, Dawson, DeKalb (part with

), Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton (part with

), Gwinnett,

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

, Haralson, Heard (part with

area codes 706 and 762 Area codes 706 and 762 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northern and west central parts of Georgia, but excluding metropolitan Atlanta. The numbering plan area (NPA) is divided into three disconnecte ...

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

, Lamar, Meriwether (part with

), Newton, Oconee, Paulding, Pike,

Polk DNA polymerase kappa is a DNA polymerase that in humans is encoded by the ''POLK'' gene. It is involved in translesion synthesis DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell (biology), cell identifies and corrects damage to the ...

, Rockdale, Spalding, and Walton.

References

External links

Interactive Map of Area Code 770
{{DEFAULTSORT:770 1995 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Area codes in the United States Area codes in Georgia (U.S. state)

History

Service area

See also

References

External links