Atlanta Area Codes

Atlanta has been one of the fastest growing cities of the Southeast. I think it is safe to say that most people in the state of Georgia, and possibly even the Southeast as a whole, know that the 404 is synonymous with the ATL. Area code 404 pretty much covers everything within the lovely interstate 285. This was not always the case. Atlanta area codes would go through a number of changes.

When the area code system was implemented, back in 1951, the 404 area code was applied to all of Georgia. But there are more codes under that 404 layer. Back in 1954, there was a split and the area code 912 took over middle and southern Georgia. Since August of 2000, the area code 229 covered the southwest and central was covered by area code 478.

People began to complain. The residents of towns just outside the metro Atlanta area wanted their 404 back. So the telephone company obliged. But this hastened the need for another area code. The 404 area had become, and to my knowledge still is, the world's largest toll-free calling zone. So back in August of 1995, new numbers in the surrounding cities of the Atlanta metro area were forced to use the 770 area code overlay. Then again in 1998, an overlay of both the 404 and the 770 went into effect. This was the area code 678. Three years later, 470 area code went over the top of them all: 404, 770, and 678.

You've Got Mail

Email has become a huge part of daily communication in our culture. We send and consume these small digital messages in all hours of the day in all their convenient splendor. Most people can’t remember a time when the “at” sign (@) was used for anything other than denoting what company a person’s email account was with. There is no foolproof system to keep your email account from getting mailed by sales pitches, sneaky “hello” messages (that turn out to be a robotic messaging of random accounts), or messages that have spyware or viruses as attachments.

This is called, as a whole, spam. No not the meat. By now most people have heard this term used to describe “unsolicited or undesired electronic messages”. It is this abuse of the system that does not allow for a universal email directory. Hence, finding a person’s email is nothing like opening the phonebook (or in the more modern sense, visiting an online phone book).

There are of course services that attempt to bridge this gap and help consumers find an email address. These websites are not open directories; rather a user needs the specific name of the person whose email is being sought after. Conversely, if someone has the email, the first and last name corresponding to that specific email can be found.

If you are looking to do either of those things you can learn about the different services out there and find out where they rank. There is a Squidoo lens dedicated to just that. It’s called Looking Up Email.

Area Code 315

The area code for central New York state may be a thing of the past in a few years. It has been serving residents for years. Notable cities that have this code attributed to them include Syracuse and Utica. The area code 315 found its way into the news recently. It has been projected that the use of the 315 in the region will become exhausted soon. The North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), the entity designated by the Federal Communications Commission to administer area codes throughout the United States, stated that the area code will exhaust by the year 2013. So what will become of the 315 area code?

The proposed plans said that there would either be an overlay of a new code or the area would be slit into three new codes. The latter of the two did not sit well with the communities. The relief plan can be viewed here.

According to Phonebooks.com (a free telephone resource), the area code 315 will continue to serve existing customers, while new customers would be issued telephone numbers with a new area code. Once an overlay is introduced, everyone in the region will be required to use the full 11-digit number (1+area code+7 digit number) when making calls.

Area Code 315