Area code 913

Area code 913 is the area code for telephone exchanges located in the Kansas portion of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. Prior to July 20, 1997, 913 covered all of northern Kansas from the Colorado state line to the Missouri state line. It has since been reduced to a small ribbon of eight counties bordering Missouri.

Despite a relatively small population, Kansas was scheduled to receive two area codes under the original North American Numbering Plan proposal from the Bell Telephone Company in 1946. Originally, area codes would follow sequentially based on geography, and under the 1946 plan, Kansas would receive area codes 617 and 618.

In October 1947, the final plan was adopted, and Kansas still had its two area codes, although the numbers had been radically altered from the original plan. The southern half of the state (Dodge City, Emporia, Garden City, Wichita) would receive 316, while the northern half (Kansas City, Shawnee, Overland Park, Topeka) would receive 913. All long-distance calls using area codes would not be implemented until late in 1951.

The original configuration was unusual for Kansas, a state which has usually seen east-west geographic disputes. However, a north-south split was deemed necessary because the state's three major metropolitan areas (Kansas City, Topeka, and Wichita)--and consequently, most of the state's landlines--are all in the east.

The two area codes of Kansas remained constant for more than 40 years, but by the mid-1990s, the proliferation of cell phones, the growing population in the Kansas City metropolitan area (most notably Johnson County), and deregulation due to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the exchanges for area code 913 were quickly being exhausted. The supply of numbers was further limited because the Kansas side of the Kansas City area shares a LATA with the Missouri side, meaning several numbers in Missouri's area code 816 weren't available for use.

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