Press Release

Statement of Ron Conners
Director of North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA)
April 19, 2001
Re: Update to 973 Overlay Relief Plan in Northwestern New Jersey

As announced in a press release dated April 17, NANPA assigned 356 as the new area code to overlay area code 973 in Northwestern New Jersey. The State of New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) expressed concern that callers might confuse the newly assigned 356 with the existing 856, which is used as an area code in Southern New Jersey. In response to this concern, NANPA has changed the new assignment from 356 to 862.

Planning for new area codes begins at least several years before a new code is announced in order to reserve a code not allocated for use elsewhere and then to insure that the new code is not assigned as a prefix in the area affected by the change. NANPA is not normally able to change the assignment this late in the cycle because most, if not all, of the prefixes are already in use. In this case, we were unusually fortunate. One of the prefixes recently returned by a telecommunications carrier was on the list of available area codes.

NANPA is pleased to be able to work with the NJ BPU to make this happen.

For media inquiries, please contact Bill Stern, spokesman for the North American Numbering Plan Administration, at 202-533-2648.