Area codes 570 and 272

Area codes 570 and 272 are telephone area codes serving the northeast quadrant of Pennsylvania, including the cities/towns of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Pittston, Carbondale, Hazleton, Clarks Summit, Towanda, Bloomsburg, Sayre, Tunkhannock, Berwick, Milford, Montrose, Honesdale, Pocono Pines, Nanticoke, Tamaqua, Shavertown, Dallas, Mahanoy City, Sunbury, Jim Thorpe, as far south as Pottsville and as far west as Lock Haven. 570 is the main area code, while 272 is an overlay covering the same territory as 570.

Pennsylvania (blue) with numbering plan area 570 shown in red.

570 was split from area code 717 on December 5, 1998. It was the first new Pennsylvania area code created outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh since the implementation of the area code system.

In 2009, it was projected that 570 would run out of numbers in the third quarter of 2011. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission considered four options—an overlay plan and three split plans. All but one of the splits would have left Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, the two largest cities in the 570 territory, within the same area code.[1] On July 15, 2010, the PUC decided the new area code, 272, would be implemented as an overlay. 272 officially entered service on March 28, 2013. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory in northeastern Pennsylvania on September 21, 2013.[2]

In 2015 there were 11 available exchanges in 570. By 2017, 570 had been completely exhausted; only one exchange was left in February, and that exchange was exhausted by May.