Missouri Is Getting Another Area Code

Move over 573 — Missouri is getting another area code, and this one is another overlay. The 235 area code will begin being assigned to the region currently handled by the 573, which includes pretty much all of the eastern half of Missouri, minus the St. Louis metro.

And, yes, we did just add a different overlay to metro St. Louis a few months back. Now, in addition to the glorious 314, and the 636, with its wealthy/trashy exurb dichotomy, St. Louis-based phones are also being assigned the distinctly unmelodic 557.  For a state whose population is largely stagnant, we sure are running through a lot of phone numbers!

Even so, the Public Service Commission is asking for calm.

“Customers are reminded that the 573 area code is not going away and if they have a telephone number with the 573 area code, they will not lose or have to change their telephone number,” said Scott Rupp, chairman of the Public Service Commission, in a statement. “An overlay is a more efficient and less disruptive way to alleviate the exhaustion of available telephone numbers, which is occurring in the 573 area code.”

So what does that mean for all you Bootheel types with landlines (not to mention everyone in Jefferson City and Columbia and Hannibal and all the other towns in between)? Well, beginning this Saturday, August 26, you'll begin the "permissive dialing period," where local calls can be made with or without the area code. There will be no additional charges; the idea is to get you used to the whole extra three digits of labor you're about to be saddled with. It's only on February 24 that the changes really begin. At that point, the Public Service Commission instructs, "all local calls made within the 573 area code must be placed using 10 digits (area code + the 7-digit telephone number). On and after that date, calls placed using just 7 digits will not be completed."

Those halcyon days of just remembering Mom's phone number as 555-5555? Enjoy them while they last. Come February, you're adding an area code — or else. And then, once you're fully playing by the new rules, they'll start making 235 assignments, with the new numbers being released on March 24, 2024, and the state officially hosting seven whole area codes.

It's a lot to get your head around ... and further proof that nothing stays the same in this fast-moving modern world — even in slow-moving Missouri.

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