Move over, 609 and 856... there's a new sheriff -- er, area code in town.

With seemingly everyone owning a cell phone these days, it was projected that the good ol' 609 area code, which has been around for decades, would run out of available new phone numbers sometime in 2018.

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Dan Alexander, Townsquare Media NJ
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We first told you about South Jersey getting a new area code earlier this year -- and that new area code has been revealed...

640.

Yes, get used to people and businesses in South Jersey having a phone number with a 640 area code.

Now, unlike the introduction of 856 many years ago -- which forced half of South Jersey to switch to a new area code -- the introduction of 640 starting next year will be a little different.

Neustar, the company that serves as the North America Numbering Plan Administrator (a fancy title for "they're the people that assign area codes"), says starting in the near future (640) will be overlayed onto the area covered by (609), so only people getting, say, a new cell phone, will get a (640) number. If you have an existing (609) number, you'll keep it.

The bad news is with the overlayed area code comes 10-digit dialing since the same area will now have two area codes. Want to order a pizza from the place down the street? You'll be dialing 10 digits to do so.

Of course, since most people just store numbers in their phones, this isn't as big of a deal as it was just a few years ago.

 

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