How do they figure out the area codes that they give to each area and state?

who decides what the numbers will be and how are the numbers picked? im just courious, cause me and my friend was talking about it and we don't know...How do they figure out the area codes that they give to each area and state?
AT%26amp;T introduced the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in 1947 to enable customers to dial their own long distance calls. Previously, all these calls were made through an operator. The NANP is shared by the United States, Canada, Bermuda, and 18 Caribbean nations.

NeuStar is the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA). As NANPA, it assigns area codes, prefixes, and other telephone codes to the industry. It also recommends plans for area code relief.

When forecasts indicate that a particular area code will run out of numbers, NANPA convenes an industry team in the affected geographic area to determine an appropriate solution. The industry team consists of representatives from companies that provide telecommunications services within the affected area code.

The team operates under area code guidelines developed by the Industry Numbering Committee. Once the industry reaches consensus on an area code relief plan, it may be submitted to the state regulatory authority for approval.



Originally, all area codes had "0" or "1" as the middle digit (312, 906, 616, etc.). This allowed 152 usable combinations.

Use of these 152 area codes was initially slow, 90 were assigned by 1950, 120 by 1960, 122 by 1970, 125 by 1980, then, things took off. Adjoining numbers, by the way, were placed far apart from each other to avoid confusion. Example: 212 for New York City, 213 for Los Angeles.

The telecommunications revolution began around 1990 with extensive growth in cellular phones, second lines, fax modems, pagers, PC modems, competition, etc.

This rapid growth quickly exhausted the available numbers in many area codes thus forcing area code splits.

Soon the 152 available area codes with "0" or "1" as the middle digit were used up. The 810 area code added to the Detroit area in August, 1994 was the second to the last one left.

Starting January 1, 1995, the format was changed so a "0" or "1" were no longer required as the middle digit. An area code can now be virtually any combination of numbers (765, 734, 847, etc.).

This new format permits 640 new usable combinations, in addition to the original 152.

In May, 1996, a new toll 鈥?free area code 888 was introduced. In April 1998, another toll free code 877 was introduced. In 2000, the toll free code 866 was introducedHow do they figure out the area codes that they give to each area and state?
There's no real method that I can figure out - the only thing is when a city or part of a state needs a new area code the assign it one. What they used to do when they needed to assign a new area code is they would divide a geographical area, and then all people in one area would be assigned new area codes. (Example: I grew up in Maryland, and when I was a kid, the state only had one area code. Then they needed to add another, and so they split the state in the middle, and everyone to the east got a new area code and to the west kept the old area code). Now what they do is they just put an "overlay" area code, so like where I live now (Boston) has 2 area codes - any newly assigned numbers get the new area code and old numbers keep the old area code.



But, I digress. The numbers that are picked are seemingly random as far as I can tell.