Media Contact: (360) 664-1116 or media@utc.wa.gov
Docket Number: UT-230108
New area code coming to Seattle area
The Utilities and Transportation Commission today approved a plan to implement a new area code to address the need for additional numbers in the Seattle area.
The new area code, 564, will overlay the existing 206 area code. Current phone numbers with the 206 area code will not change. The 564 area code will be assigned to new phone numbers once no more 206 area code numbers are available.
The North American Numbering Plan Administrator projects the 206 area code will run out of numbers by the end of 2025. The Commission directed the industry to develop a nine-month implementation plan to ensure that the new area code will be ready six months before 206 phone numbers run out.
The commission originally approved the single area code overlay for western Washington in 2000 but postponed it until 2017 due to successful state and national number conservation efforts. In 2017, the commission approved an overlay of the 564 area code only for the 360 number plan area.
The UTC regulates the rates and services of telecommunications companies, investor-owned electric utilities, natural gas and water companies, garbage-collection haulers, household-goods movers and charter-bus companies, commercial ferries, marine pilotage, pipeline companies, and a low-level radioactive waste repository.
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