Area code 816

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Area Code 816 is an area code in the state of Missouri that covers the Kansas City Metropolitan Area and the city of St. Joseph to the north. The area code used to cover most of northwestern Missouri to the state's borders with Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, but currently, the area code only shares a border with Kansas to the west and is surrounded on the other three sides by area code 660, the area code that was created by shearing off most of the former territory covered by 816.

1 History of area codes in Missouri
2 Missouri joins the new area code trend
3 Major cities
4 Other cities
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] History of area codes in Missouri

When the North American Numbering Plan Administration came out with its first map of area codes in 1947, Missouri was assigned just two area codes, with 816 covering the western half of the state and area code 314 covering the eastern half. However, before the implementation of area codes was made final in late 1951, the original two-code plan for Missouri was changed to three codes, as area code 417 was carved out for the southwestern portion of the state, including the cities of Branson, Joplin and Springfield.

[edit] Missouri joins the new area code trend

By late 1996, due to deregulation caused by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the proliferation of cell phones, especially in the Kansas City area, Missouri was faced with yet another area code split. Just two years earlier, area code 314 had to be split, leaving the new area code 573 for the central and southeastern portions of the state, including the cities of Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Hannibal and Jefferson City, leaving 314 in the areas around St. Louis.

In early 1997, the Missouri Public Service Commission, which oversees telecommunications in the state, held hearings regarding a possible split of the area code. The original recommendation of the Missouri PSC was to keep 816 for the Kansas City area and assign a new area code to the rest of the calling area, as it would cause the least disruption. (1)

On June 4, 1997, the Missouri PSC announced that starting on October 12 of that year, that a period of permissive dialing would commence for those areas that were to receive the new area code 660, meaning that calls could be completed using either 660 or 816. On April 19, 1998, 660 became mandatory for all calls in the affected area. (2)

In 2000, the Missouri PSC announced plans to add Area code 975 as an overlay of the 816 area code, but soon postponed indefinitely the May 5, 2002, implementation date when the commission determined no immediate need for additional phone numbers.