SEATTLE — Available phone numbers with the 206 area code are running out - so Seattle is getting a new one: 564.
The Utilities and Transportation Commission approved the plan Thursday to address a need for new phone numbers in the Seattle area.
Current phone numbers with the 206 area code aren't going to change. The 564 area code will be assigned to new phone numbers once 206 area code numbers are depleted.
The North American Numbering Plan Administrator estimates that numbers with the 206 area code will run out by the end of 2025. The Utilities and Transportation Commission directed the cell phone industry to develop a nine-month implementation plan to make sure that the new area code will be ready six months ahead of when 206 phone numbers are expected to run out.
The commission originally approved the 564 area code as an overlay for areas in western Washington that needed additional phone numbers in 2000, but didn't actually need to implement it as an option until 2017, when 360 numbers began to run out.
The area code is already in use on the Olympic Peninsula, southwest Washington, eastern Pierce and King Counties and also in Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom Counties.
Part of the overlay area code implementation meant Washington residents needed to switch to 10 digital dialing in the western part of the state in 2017, due to the potential for a 564 number and a number with a different area code to have the same seven preceding digits.
Callers within the 509 area code were the only ones in the state who could do seven-digital dialing until last fall, when the 988 number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline went into effect.