Area code 913
Area code 913 is the telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for northeastern Kansas. The numbering plan area (NPA) consists of a small ribbon of eight counties bordering Missouri—an area largely coextensive with the Kansas portion of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
Prior to July 20, 1997, 913 covered all of northern Kansas from the Colorado state line to the Missouri state line, running along the entire border with Nebraska.
History
Despite a modest population of less that two million, Kansas was divided lengthwise into two numbering plan areas during the establishment of the first formulation of the North American Numbering Plan by AT&T in 1947.[1] The southern half of the state, including Wichita Dodge City, Emporia, and Garden City received area code 316. The northern half, including Kansas City, Shawnee, Overland Park, Lawrence, Manhattan, and Topeka, became numbering plan area 913.
The 913/316 dividing line ran from west to east roughly following a path along Kansas Routes 4 and 96 from the Colorado state line eastward. It dipped along Interstate 135 in McPherson County and continued east to just north of Emporia in Lyon County, and then all the way to the Missouri state line.
The north-south split avoided cutting the major toll traffic routes that ran in east-west directions, a rule of traffic and implementation cost analysis.[1] It also divided the state's landlines more evenly; most of Kansas's major cities, and hence most of its landlines, are in the east.
Kansas City's growth necessitates a new code
The configuration of two area codes for Kansas remained unchanged for more than forty years. By the mid-1990s, the proliferation of cell phones, the growing population in the Kansas City metropolitan area (most notably Johnson County and Overland Park, as well as deregulation due to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the pool for exchange codes in area code 913 were quickly being exhausted.
Late in 1996, the Kansas Corporation Commission, which oversees telecommunications in the state, requested relief from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) for the exchanges of area code 913, and on February 12, 1997, the NANPA responded by splitting off the bulk of the old 913 territory—essentially, everything from Lawrence westward—into the new 785 area code, with 913 reduced to the Kansas City suburbs. 785 began its split on July 20, 1997; permissive dialing of 913 continued across northern Kansas until October 2, 1998.
Even with the Kansas City area's continued growth, 913 is nowhere near exhaustion. NANPA projections of 2017 estimate that the Kansas side of the Kansas City area will not need another area code until 2045.[2]
Service area
Major cities
Major cities reassigned from NPA 913 to 785
Boundaries
When the 785 split of numbering plan area 913 to removed most of the territory, Wyandotte, Linn, Miami, Johnson, Leavenworth, and Atchison counties kept 913. The city of Elwood, surrounded on three sides by Missouri, retained 913, despite the rest of Doniphan County switching to area code 785. This is because Elwood receives its dialtone from St. Joseph, Missouri, which is part of area code 816, the area code for the Missouri side of the Kansas City area. It would have been too expensive for Southwestern Bell to reroute Elwood's trunk line so it could follow the rest of Doniphan County into 785.
See also
References
- ^ a b W.H. Nunn, Nationwide Numbering Plan, Bell System Technical Journal 31(5), 851 (1952)
- ^ "Exhaust analysis" (PDF). www.nationalnanpa.com. 2017. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
External links
- "Area Code Maps". NANPA.
| North: 785 | ||
| West: 785 | area code 913 | East: 660, 816 |
| South: 620 | ||
| Missouri area codes: 314/557, 417, 573/235, 636, 660, 816/975 | ||