Area codes 270 and 364

Area code 270 serves the Commonwealth of Kentucky's western and south central counties. Area code 270 was split from area code 502 on April 19, 1999. Planning for the introduction of a second area code for the region, area code 364, began in 2007. After several years of delay, it was announced in December 2012 that the second code would be introduced as an overlay in August 2013, with mandatory 10-digit dialing within the geographic region beginning on February 1, 2014. Numbers in area code 364 were made available for assignment on March 3, 2014.

The creation of 270 was intended as a long-term solution. However, within only five years, 270 was already close to exhaustion due to the proliferation of cell phones and pagers. In 2006, Kentucky officials announced that 270 would run out of numbers in late 2007. On May 31, 2007, the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) announced that 270 would be split along the Pennyrile Parkway, with a newly created area code (later announced to be 364), serving western Kentucky, with west-central Kentucky retaining 270. This announcement indicated that permissive dialing of the new area code would begin on April 1, 2008, with mandatory dialing of the new area code on October 1, 2008. Among the communities remaining in the 270 area code were: Bowling Green, Owensboro, and Elizabethtown. Communities that were to begin using 364 included Madisonville, Hopkinsville, Henderson, Murray, and Paducah, and the Kentucky portion of the Fort Campbell Army base. The PSC did note that mandatory number pooling, recently imposed on the region, may delay the implementation of the new code. Surprisingly, the 502 and 859 area codes, which serve the urban areas of Louisville (502) and Lexington and Northern Kentucky (both 859), were not expected to exhaust until 2017 at the earliest, even though they have fewer numbers than 270.

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