By the middle of the year, the region could have another area code.
According to the state Public Service Commission, a new 329-prefix is coming to help keep the region from running out of phone numbers. Anyone needing new phone service or adding a phone line in Orange, Ulster, Dutchess, Rockland and Sullivan counties as well as parts of Putnam Westchester, Columbia, Delaware and Greene counties will get one with the new code, the PSC added.
New 329 phone numbers may roll out beginning in the third quarter of this year, the PSC said, adding that the 845-zone will become what is known as an overlay district – which means the old area code will be used until there are no more new numbers left to give out. In other words, no existing 845 numbers will be affected, and calls from an 845 to a 329 number will still be considered local.
The 845-area code was established in 2000 when the 914-area code also began running out of numbers. According to the North American Numbering Plan – an integrated telephone numbering system developed by AT&T to simplify long-distance calling – it would take approximately 28 years to run out of 329 phone numbers.