New 472 area code is coming to southeastern NC later in 2022. Here are details.
A new area code is coming to parts of southeastern North Carolina, meaning new customers will receive a 472 phone number instead of the familiar 910 in the coming years.
The affected area includes the cities of Fayetteville, Wilmington and Jacksonville, the N.C. Utilities Commission said in a news release.
Without the introduction of a new area code, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator forecasts that the 910 area code will be exhausted by the second quarter of 2023, officials said.
The overlay relief will allow old customers to keep their 910 numbers, while new customers are given 472 area codes.
Phone numbers with the 910 area code are expected to run out in late 2022, said the N.C. Utilities Commission in a Feb. 7 news release.
Starting Oct. 7, customers in the 910 “overlay region” may get the new 472 area code when they start a new line or request new service.
Customers with the 472 area code will need to dial an area code for all numbers.
Similar overlay reliefs have previously been approved and implemented in the Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro areas, the commission said. Raleigh’s overlay area code is 984, in addition to 919.
More detailed information will be provided in the future by local telecommunications providers, according to the release.
The introduction of a new area code comes after significant population growth across the region.
Between 2010 and 2018, the Wilmington metro area grew by 15.5%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released in 2019. In that same time frame, Jacksonville’s population grew by 11.2%.
North Carolina as a whole saw its population grow by almost 1 million residents in the decade between 2010 and 2020, The News & Observer previously reported.
That growth has earned the state a new congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
This story was originally published June 29, 2021 at 5:05 PM with the headline "New 472 area code is coming to southeastern NC later in 2022. Here are details.."