Move over 305, Miami-Dade and the Keys getting new 645 area code
Due to the increasing amount of phone numbers, the 850 may be split with a new area code.

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The new code will kick in when the current area codes run out of possible combinations — expected in early 2024.

Can Pitbull work this one into a song?

Miami-Dade County might be known as “The 305” but the proliferation of telephones means that a third area code — 645 — is coming to the area that is currently home to area codes 305 and 754.

As soon as all possible 10-digit combinations of those two area codes become exhausted, new lines in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties will start to be assigned the new 645 area code. And that’s expected to be sometime in early 2024, according to Public Service Commission members.

The area code 305 once covered the whole state when it was first introduced in 1947.

“Since the origination of the 305 area code in 1947, this is only the second time Florida has added a third area code to a specified region,” said Andrew Giles Fay, PSC chairman, according to a news release. “The increasing customer demand is a testament to South Florida’s growing economy. As Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys continue to attract new residents from all across our country and around the world, the new 645 area code will ensure that the demand for new lines is met.”

All but 12 of the 792 usable prefixes in the 305-area code have been depleted of combinations. And all but 73 of those 792 usable prefixes in the 23-year-old 786-area code have been assigned, the state Public Service Commission announced in December.

Each prefix yields 10,000 numbers, according to PSC officials.

Existing customers will keep their current telephone numbers, but new customers, or requests for additional lines, may be assigned the new 645 area code once it’s activated. Customers will continue to use 10-digit dialing — the area code plus the seven-digit phone number — to make local calls, company officials said.

In Palm Beach County, the PSC has announced the area commonly associated with the 561 area code also is going to be sharing the area with a new triple number combination for dialing: 728. The 561 is going to run out of 10-digit combinations by 2023, according to The Palm Beach Post.

Anne Geggis

Anne Geggis is a South Florida journalist who began her career in Vermont and has worked at the Sun-Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal and the Gainesville Sun covering government issues, health and education. She was a member of the Sun-Sentinel team that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Parkland high school shooting. You can reach her on Twitter @AnneBoca or by emailing [email protected].


One comment

  • Lincoln Madison

    February 26, 2022 at 2:56 pm

    Small correction, near the beginning of the article: “645 is coming to … area codes 305 and 754.” That should be 305 and 786, as correctly indicated later in the article. Area codes 954 and 754 serve Broward County.

    The other case in Florida where 3 area codes serve a region is Orlando, with area codes 407, 321, and 689, but the “Space Coast” region is served only by 321, in an arrangement that is unique in the whole country. However, the coast lost 7-digit local calling anyway because of the federal 988 mandate.

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