Area codes 920 and 274

Area codes 920 and 274 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for a large area of eastern Wisconsin. Area code 920 was created on July 26, 1997, in a split of area code 414, one of the original North American area codes of 1947. 274 was added to the same numbering plan area (NPA) on May 5, 2023 to create an area code overlay.

The 920/274 area code covers most of Northeast Wisconsin including Green Bay and the Fox Cities as well as the far northern and eastern exurban areas of the Madison MSA and far northern and western portions of the Milwaukee CSA

History

When the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) divided the North American continent into the original eighty-six numbering plan areas (NPAs) for the first nationwide telephone numbering plan in 1947, Wisconsin received two area codes, 414 for the south and northeast, and 715, for the northern part.

On November 22, 1996, Ameritech notified Bellcore, the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA), that demand for telephone numbers had rapidly increased in the eastern part of the state, so that a jeopardy condition existed in which mitigation could not be provided early enough to avoid exhaustion of the numbering pool.

On January 15, 1997, the NANP announced a split of the numbering plan area to create the new area code 920, in which Milwaukee and the surrounding communities south of the city would retain the existing area code, and the northern portion of the numbering plan area would receive 920. The split became effective on July 26, 1997, and a permissive dialing period ended on October 25, 1997.

In 2008, service providers recognized the need for a second area code for northeastern Wisconsin, leading the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to approve an overlay plan with new area code 274. The effective date for the new area code was announced as March 10, 2012. However, on December 22, 2010, PSC ordered a postponement of the plan due to new exhaustion forecasts for 2014.