Area code 404

Area code 404 covers Atlanta, Georgia and its closest suburbs, roughly within Interstate 285. It is an enclave area code, completely surrounded by area code 770, which serves most of Atlanta's suburbs.

It was one of the original area codes established in 1947, and originally covered the entire state of Georgia. On July 1, 1954, area code 912 was assigned to southern and central Georgia. Area code 404 was retained for the northern half of the state, from the Tennessee and North Carolina borders as far south as Columbus and Augusta.

Despite Atlanta's growth in the 1970s and 1980s, 404 remained unchanged for 38 years. However, by the end of the 1980s, northern Georgia needed another area code. The supply of numbers was further limited because the 404 territory included portions of three local access and transport areas (LATAs) that spilled into Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee. The Atlanta LATA extends some distance into Alabama, the Augusta LATA spills into South Carolina, and the far northern portion of the 404 territory was part of the Chattanooga LATA. On May 3, 1992, area code 706 was split from 404 for most of the state north and east of metro Atlanta.

When 706 went into service, it included several exurbs of Atlanta. However, BellSouth (now part of AT&T Inc.) added them back to 404 due to customer complaints. The 404/706 boundary was redrawn in a way that left Columbus and its surrounding area cut off from the rest of 706, making 706 one of the few area codes that are not contiguous. However, 404 was still close to exhaustion even after the creation of 706. The Georgia Public Service Commission had already planned to assign 770 to Atlanta's suburbs later in the decade. However, the decision to return the Atlanta exurbs to 404 forced the GPSC to shift nearly all of Atlanta's suburban ring to 770 on August 1, 1995, sooner than had been planned.

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