For more than three quarters of a century, Buffalo-area phone numbers have started with three numbers immediately recognized by anyone who has ever lived here: 716.
Starting Monday, if you request a new mobile or landline, you may be assigned a new area code: 624.
The 716 area code, which is used in Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties and part of Allegany County, is about to run out of numbers, according to the New York State Department of Public Service.
Thanks is large part to the proliferation of cellphones, the State Public Service Commission decided in October to add another area code.
What’s important to note: If you have a 716 number already, that’s not going to change. This affects only new mobile and landlines.
This also won’t mean any changes for three-digit numbers, including 911, 211 and 411. Regardless of your area code, if that service was already available in your area, you will continue to dial just those three numbers.
To call within or between 716 and 624, you will have to dial the area code and seven-digit number. To call outside, you will have dial a 1 before the area code and number.
It’s not clear yet exactly when the new area codes will start being assigned. That won’t happen until the last of the 716 numbers are exhausted, according to a news release by the Department of Public Works.
Also, what’s considered a local call will remain so, in terms of price. The new area code won’t impact that.
The 716 area code was one of New York State’s first area codes and was established in 1947. In 2001, the 585 area code was added, covering the Rochester area, as well as counties to its immediate west including Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming and Allegany.
The Public Service department suggested customers check to make sure equipment that uses phone lines recognizes the new 624 area code. Examples they included were life-safety systems, fax machines, internet dial-up numbers, alarms and other…
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