The 4th smallest state now has 640 as its 10th area code. Back in 1947 there was only 1 area code for the whole state-201. Beginning next month, I will have to dial 10 digits for all in area code calls. One would think that with the decrease in land line usage that more numbers would have become available.

Colorado has needed tenner dialing for decades now. You get used to it. I just dropped my Colorado number and got a Wyoming number, and i still need to get used to 7 digit dialing.

There are some areas in the country, such as West Los Angeles & The South Bay, that have "layered" area codes, with one on top of the other.

Yup, been using 10 digit numbers up here for years too, I just use "Auto-dial"

PA has been using 10 digits for several decades now, as is NY, I am sure.

As an off topic related thing:
I can remember our number as far back as 1947 when I was only 5.
It was NB-2-5031R (party line)

The next number was when we moved to my grandmother's house the following year: CH-7-7156

I lived there till age 11.

After that I don't think I really remembered.

But those 1st two numbers still stick in my mind all these years. I'm 76 now.
Amazing.

Of course other crazy numbers still stick in my head for some odd reason... like
my brother's navy serial number !!!
... WHY? ....Even he barely remembered it.

Now... of course... MY Army serial number... and my SS are permanently frozen in my brain.

Now a family of five has five phones with five numbers as opposed to a single number from a land line. Those added cell numbers far exceed the number of lost landline numbers.

.

It's interesting to contemplate the millions of miles of copper twisted pair that used to keep us all connected, and now is slowly disappearing.

Or is it?

How much will be abandoned in place under ground? Overhead lines are much easier to remove.
How much it is feasible for recycling into new copper products? As I recall, outside plant phone cable is mostly insulation and not a lot of copper.

Out here in fly-over country we haven't come close to running out of phone numbers in area code 402. It covers roughly the same 35,000 square miles that it has since 1954. Edit/ Correction: In 2011 area code 531 was overlaid in parts of the 402 area code. Apparently not yet widely assigned.

I think population density has everything to do with that. Out here, AT&T is installing fiber optic cable, in order to compete with Spectrum for CATV, internet, and phone service.
I'm glad to see that, since competition ideally means better end-user prices. Usually.

Usually. Till the two big players merge.

Right. That's why I said "usually"...

It's been ten digits here since 1996 anyway.

Some parts of the state here have done overlays where 10 digits was necessary. Apparently one will still be able to dial 7 in 908 and 856. I'm in 609. At least with the overlay of 640 here, I won't have to change the dial cards on my phones.