Quite simply, the telecommunications industry is running out of phone numbers in existing area codes. The opening of local telephone markets to competition, combined with rapidly growing requests for numbers for telephones, pagers, fax machines, cellular phones, modems, and other services has quickly chipped away at the existing supply of phone numbers.

In some areas, the need for new numbers is so great that state regulatory commissions and the telecommunications industry have determined that the best solution is to add new area codes.