10-digit dialing starts Monday for 717 area code

Beginning Monday, Aug. 26, 10-digit dialing will be required for the 717 area code.

Callers will have to dial 717 before the seven-digit local number. If they don’t, they’ll get a recording telling them to hang up dial again.

The change is part of the implementation of a 223 overlay area code.

"Growth across the region, along with our collective desire to stay connected through a variety of devices, means that we are quickly approaching the end of the remaining telephone number combinations in the 717 area," explained Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. "Independent analysts expect the supply of 717 numbers to be exhausted this fall."

Hagen-Frederiksen said the overlay establishes a new area code covering the same 16-county region and allows all existing 717 users to keep their current phone numbers.

The PUC’s order approving the overlay plan specifies that any new numbers for the 223 overlay area code will not be released until Sept. 26, 2017, and that requests for numbers in the 717 area code will continue to be honored as long as resources are available.

"We encourage residents to prepare for the change by checking their devices to verify that area codes are included with stored numbers," Hagen-Frederiksen said. "Contact medical alert services, alarm systems and other services that make automatic calls, to ensure operation with 10-digit dialing; include area codes with all new numbers added to devices and to start using 10-digits whenever making a call."