Maine won't run out of '207' numbers till at least 2029, regulator says
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Mainer’s iconic 207 area code has been around since 1947.
Maine's iconic area code won't be exhausted until the second quarter of 2029, staying around more than two years longer than previously thought, the state's utility regulator said Wednesday.
The new prediction follows a review by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator.
Maine's Public Utilities Commission has been keeping tabs on the status of the 207 area code since 2018 amid a growing number of service providers in the state along with the volume of numbering resources. In January 2021, the predicted exhaust date was within four years. It has since been increased to more than six years.
“Since we first became aware of the risk to Maine’s 207 area code, two things have become clear: that preserving the area code is important to the people of Maine and that we have tools to help do so,” said Chair Philip L. Bartlett II. “Our staff is dedicated to preserving Maine’s single area code as long as possible.”
The updated prediction extends the life of Maine's single area code 27 months beyond a previous forecast of the first quarter of 2027. The 207 area code has been around since 1947.
Ongoing efforts to preserve the area code include encouraging the donation of resources for numbers from one provider to another and limiting the unnecessary use of large 10,000 numbering block codes that are opened. Regulators are also working with service providers to return blocks of unused numbers in 1,000-number increments.
In addition, the PUC is participating in a working group appointed by the Federal Communications Commission to assist the North American Numbering Council with its oversight of the North American Numbering Plan Administration.
Maine’s utilities regulator is also investigating the feasibility of rate center consolidation pertaining to Consolidated Communications.
Commission staff pleaded to pursue options to further extend Maine’s single area code, "which not only extends the life of the 207 area code but has also served as a model for other states facing similar area code exhaustion circumstances," according to Wednesday's news release.
In 2021, the Commission petitioned the FCC to direct NANPA to report on the technical, operational and cost requirements to implement "number optimization measures" for the 207 area code. The NANPA number exhaustion and prediction reports can be found here.
The PUC said its efforts to date have resulted in the return of over 750,000 numbers to the numbering pool from unused or slightly used blocks.
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