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New Area Code Coming To Philadelphia Area By 2018

by Kim Glovas

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new telephone area code is being planned for the not too-distant future for the Philadelphia region.

We already have 215 and 267, but the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission says those area codes will be used up relatively soon.

"At this point, based on the predictions from the experts who watch this sort of thing, it looks like we'll be putting that new area code into service sometime in the middle of 2018," said the PUC's Nils Hagen-Frederiksen.

He says the sheer volume of phones and other devices that need numbers is driving the move for more area codes.

And he says this isn't just happening here, it's happening across the state and across the country.

"As long as areas keep growing, we keep getting more residents more businesses, and more people wanting phones, it's a mathematical issue," said Hagen-Frederiksen.

The region had been exclusively '215' until 1999 when '267' was added.

Hagen-Frederiksen says the new number will be determined by experts who select numbers that aren't already in use, or set aside like 911 or 511.

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