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.
History
Despite a small total population of less that two million, Kansas was divided lengthwise into two numbering plan areas for the establishment of the first formulation of the North American Numbering Plan by AT&T in 1947.[1] The southern half of the state received area code 316, and included the largest city of the state, Wichita, as well as Dodge City, Emporia, and Garden City, The northern half, with its major population center around Kansas City along the Missouri state line including Shawnee, Overland Park, Lawrence, Manhattan, and Topeka, became numbering plan area 913.
The north-south split divided the population more evenly, and avoided cutting the major toll traffic routes that ran in east-west directions, a rule of traffic and implementation cost analysis.[1]
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), and 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. From July 20, 1997, through October 2, 1998, a period of permissive dialing was in use, allowing customers affected by the new area code to use either 913 or 785 when dialing long-distance. On October 3, 1998, the 785 area code became mandatory in the new calling area, and 913 was reduced to the Kansas City area.
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's wire center is in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is part of the Kansas City LATA. It would have been too expensive for Southwestern Bell to reroute Elwood's traffic so it could follow the rest of Doniphan County into 785.
When all of northern Kansas was still one numbering plan area (913), the boundary ran from west to east roughly following a path along Kansas Routes 4 and 96 from the Colorado state line eastward. The code boundary dipped along Interstate 135 in McPherson County and continued east to just north of Emporia in Lyon County along the Kansas Turnpike, and then all the way to the Missouri state line.
See also
List of NANP area codes
References
- 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
| North: 785 | ||
| West: 785 | area code 913 | East: 660, 816 |
| South: 620 | ||
| Missouri area codes: 314, 417, 573, 636, 660, 816 | ||