ORLANDO, Fla. – Phone numbers with the signature Orlando 407 area code are in high demand, so much so that the Florida Public Service Commission had to approve a new area code overlay for when those numbers run out.
PSC estimates that all available 407 phone numbers will be exhausted within the next year. So what will happen next? That's when the 689 overlay area code will kick in.
“We’ve extended use of the 407 area code for as long as possible, but all available numbers are expected to be assigned within the next year,” PSC Chairman Art Graham said. “The North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) can now begin processing the 689 area code for efficient implementation when needed.”
For anyone in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and parts of Lake and Volusia counties who already has a 407 area code, their number will not change, since the overlay will only be applied to new numbers, whether they be for phones, fax machines, pagers, ATMs or pay-at-the-pump gas stations.
Some numbers in this area also have the 321 area code, which was approved as a limited area code overlay in 1998. That's why calls in the Central Florida area require 10-digit dialing.
Tuesday's vote marks the second time the PSC has decided to implement the 689 area code in Central Florida. In 2002, the NANPA approved the 689 area code overlay with the expectation that 407 and 321 numbers would be exhausted by July 2002.
As it turns out, there were more 407 and 321 numbers than expected, so the implementation of 689 was delayed 16 years, until now.