New York City Area Gets Sixth Area Code: Will Phone Numbers Ever Run Out?

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Mobile phone in jeans pocket. Tim Graham/Getty Images.

Get ready to be introduced to the area code that is 929.

The reason is quite simple: increased cell phone usage in New York means that there just aren’t enough numbers to go around. Forgive us if this looks like a math test but the likes of 212, as well as newbies 718, 917, 646 and 347, aren’t able to stem the oncoming inevitability that new codes are needed and quick.

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Into the breach: 929. And so, starting April 16, the good folk who reside in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, who need a new service or line may be given a 929 area code.

The doomsday scenario of course is that, before long, we might run out entirely of numbers. Fear not, said Verizon spokesman John Bonomo, who allayed any fears by stating that with advance planning, “phone numbers will never actually run out.”

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In which case, the quest to score the digits of those we find attractive, as well as the good old drunk-dialing (stay classy!), won’t be going anywhere. And no three-digit area code can ever change that. (via NY Daily News)