From Mod.telecom on the USENET


New England Telephone has announced that NPA617 (Eastern Mass.) is 
being split, with the area outside (inner) Metro Boston and some of
the South Shore being moved into the new NPA508.  Joy of joys for
the affected!  Worcester, Lowell, Maynard and New Bedford all get
a new area code, along with suburbs like Framingham and Concord.
Yet the Western Mass. NPA413 is practically empty.  (Who drew the
original lines?!?)

In the meantime, the ISDN Standards Committee T1D1 (which I'm on)
has faced the question of how to set up a numbering plan for North
America, based on extending the present plan to include non-local
exchange ISDNs?  For example, Telenet wants their own NXX codes.
Bellcore has offered them an area code, but from the "interchangeable" 
range (like  "552"), so it won't be dialable from telephones until
we prepare to run out of current-style area codes.

If we give the other carriers NXX codes, some area codes may exhaust
earlier.  That will, of course, force the rest of the network to
catch up and go to universal 1+ dialing before the presently-estimated
1995 date.

This got me thinking:  How close to full up are the NPAs?  So I hacked
the following together based upon the V&H tape used for billing.
Sorry I couldn't make it multi-column or get states listed.  This
may be a clue as to which codes split next.  (I've added my own comments.)
         fred


NPA    COUNT       COMMENTS

201     543     North Jersey.  Getting right up there.
202     437
203     349
204     308
205     522
206     431
207     306
208     246
209     257
212     467
213     524     Los Angeles already split off 818.
214     542     A Dallas split is rumored soon.
215     481
216     477
217     325
218     267
219     307
301     538     Maryland.  Busier than 617.
302      73     Delaware.  Every state gets one, y'know.
303     557     Colorado has been growing...
304     298
305     540     Miami too.
306     416
307     133     Wyoming.  
308     186
309     237
312     640     Why hasn't Chicago split yet?
313     504     
314     454
315     228
316     332
317     325
318     298
319     308
401     108     Rhode Island.
402     385
403     544     Alberta and some NWT - Canada's busiest
404     456
405     462
406     316
407       0
408     216
409     255
410       0
412     377
413     109     W. Mass - what a waste of a good code!
414     378
415     483     San Francisco, also rumored for split.
416     433
417     181
418     327
419     304
501     480
502     310
503     441
504     267
505     261
506     143
507     249
508       0
509     213
512     501     San Antonio, TX.
513     396
514     363
515     377
516     283
517     285
518     211
519     286
601     358
602     440
603     193
604     480
605     310
606     240
607     146
608     210
609     204
610       0
612     424
613     220
614     338
615     430
616     317
617     533     E. Mass - splitting off 508 in 1988
618     300
619     329
701     333
702     195
703     415
704     265
705     239
706      96     Northwest Mexico hack, not a real NPA
707     145
708       0
709     237
710       0     Unlisted code used for AT&T Government services.
712     265
713     414
714     364
715     288
716     322
717     410
718     294
719       0
801     265
802     167
803     396
804     371
805     193
806     225
807      97     W. Ontario - another waste.
808     163
809     340
810       0
812     243
813     344
814     237
815     255
816     401
817     381
818     240
819     282
900      24
901     178
902     221
903       0
904     356
905     206
906     109     Upper Michigan, tied with 413.
907     340
908       0
909       0
910       0
912     270
913     399
914     256
915     257
916     319
917       0
918     257
919     510     North Carolina's growing quickly.