Public hearings scheduled on new overlay area code for NYC

September 24, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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CITYWIDE — A PROPOSED NEW OVERLAY AREA CODE for parts of New York City will be the topic of two virtual public statement hearings that the New York State Public Service Commission will hold on Tuesday, Oct. 1. The Commission will receive comments on a petition that the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) filed on May 22 on behalf of the telecommunications industry for relief of the numbering plan area that currently includes the area codes 347, 718, 917 and 929. NANPA seeks authorization to overlay a new telephone area code to include the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and northern Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood, which is physically on the Bronx side of the Harlem River. NANPA seeks approval in time for implementation six months before the project exhaust date for available phone numbers. All existing telephone customers in the overlay area would retain their current 10-digit telephone numbers (area code plus seven-digit telephone number), with the new area code being assigned to new phone numbers after the existing codes are exhausted.

Before 1984, the five boroughs were all under the 212 area code. Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island were assigned the 718 area code, effective Sept. 1, 1984. The overlay area code 917 was established in 1992 and was assigned mostly to mobile phone numbers as they burgeoned. The overlay 347 and 929 areas code took effect in 1999 and 2011, respectively.

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