Area codes 703 & 571

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The area colored red indicates the northern region of Virginia served by overlay area code 571 and original area code 703

North American telephone area codes 703 and 571 are Commonwealth of Virginia overlay area codes which serve most telephone installations in Northern Virginia, including the independent cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church and Manassas, as well as the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, parts of Fauquier County, Virginia, eastern Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford. Area code 703 was created as one of the original area codes in October 1947 for the entire state.

• Area code 804 was split from 703 on June 24, 1973.
• Area code 703 was again split on June 19, 1995 to form Area code 540.
• Area code 571 was created on March 1, 2000 as an overlay to area code 703.

[edit] History

[edit] Splits and overlays

[edit] 1973 split

In an area-code split on Sunday, 24 June 1973, which took effect in a flash-cut, with no official permissive dialing period, Area Code 703 was restricted to the northern and western regions of Virginia—from Arlington in the north down through Blacksburg and the southwestern region of the state—while the central (e.g., Richmond) and southeastern (e.g., Norfolk and Virginia Beach) portions of Virginia were split off and reassigned the 804 area code. Contrary to what some others might think, there was no official permissive dialing period with this split. However, when AT&T and its Bell Operating Companies would do major cutovers in a flash-cut during that time period, there might have been an unintentional transition period ranging from several hours to a day. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1995 split

On June 19, 1995, Bell Atlantic and GTE restricted the geographical region served by area code 703 to only Northern Virginia exchanges, and assigned the other local exchanges formerly served by area code 703 to the 540 area code.

[edit] 2000 overlay

Area code 571 was introduced on March 1, 2000 as an overlay to the region served by area code 703. Area code 571 serves most new telephone exchanges; while it is primarily associated with mobile telephone lines, it is also used for certain new landline exchanges, such as the telephone service for the United States Patent and Trademark Office since its move to Alexandria, or Fairfax County Public Schools who moved their headquarters to Falls Church in 2006. Without the overlay, it would have been necessary to split area code 703 even further, to include only Alexandria and parts of Arlington.

[edit] Local service providers

Although former competitors Bell Atlantic Mobile (a former Baby Bell) and GTE had assigned geographical monopolies varying by region in Virginia, they merged in the late 1990s to form Verizon, now the dominant local telephone service provider throughout Virginia (including both of these area codes). Over 85% of all telephone numbers in both of these area codes are served by Verizon, a regulated monopoly.

[edit] Mobile phone service

However, mobile telephone service is provided with numbers assigned these area codes by various operators such as Cingular, T-Mobile and Nextel, inter alia, in addition to Verizon's subsidiary, Verizon Wireless.

[edit] Cable competition

Also, competition in the local telephone service market within these area codes has been joined by cable television operators such as Cox Communications, which provides local telephone service running over its own broad-band fiber optic telecommunication network (which network also provides cable television and high-speed internet service).

[edit] See also

• List of North American area codes
• North American Numbering Plan
• North American Numbering Plan Administration
• Map