929 Area Code Debuts Tomorrow!

Let's have a warm round of applause for 929, the new digits for the so-called "outer boroughs." As you'll no doubt recall, last year the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) concluded that unless a new area code was provided for NYC, we would actual exhaust our supply in 2012, just as the Mayans predicted. And so began a "customer education" campaign to prepare everyone for the upcoming changes. Still feeling kind of anxious about these new numbers changing our lives forever? That's okay! We're going to be just fine—as long as you're not using a rotary telephone. You're not, are you? Because if so, this 929 going to take years off your life.

Starting tomorrow, the 929 will be assigned to some land line users in every borough except Manhattan. As City Room's Andy Newman reports, "When Grandma calls from her rotary phone, she will have to wait even longer for the dial to spring back — 9+2+9 adds up to 20 clicks, more than any other New York City area code. She might make that I’m-leaving-you-my-entire-Hummel-figurine-collection call to your cousin in 313 instead." But there's a solution: if find yourself stuck with a 929 area code that risks getting you disinherited, this guy has a pretty sweet 212 for sale. He wants a million dollars for it, but hey, that's still cheaper than moving to Manhattan.

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By John Del Signore in News on April 15, 2011 6:48 PM

Comments [rss]

silver

Ahhh fuck. I hate my rotaries since they made the area codes mandatory. I'm gonna hate them even more now. Just make it 000 like in England so I can jump off the GWB and be done with it.

RevWaldo

The annoying thing is that a lot of 212 numbers are poorly used.
At my (old) job my desk had a 917 number, but my personal fax-to-email number was a 212.

NYC should lobby for some cooler digits. (Yes, it has been done.)

MattyGC

I remember when people went ape shit over the 718 area code.

pvbklyn

What still bugs me is having to dial 718 in a 718 area code with a fucking 1 in front of it no less. . .

ohgodkillmenow

It's a straight 10-digit national number at this point--thanks to the ubiquity of VoIP and regulation that allows easy portability, geographic boundaries are no longer relevant. Therefore: who gives a shit?

mmheidelberger

Agreed, especially when many people are migrating to phones equipped with a directory of some sort; you just select the person you want to call without ever touching the number pad.