South Jersey's Getting A New Area Code: What You Need To Know

The new 640 area code is coming to New Jersey, and it will take effect in any area that currently already uses the 609 exchange. New telephone lines or services are coming Sept. 17.

Instead of replacing the phone numbers, it decided to overlay the new area code into the existing region. Anyone with an existing 609 number will keep their current phone number, but anyone who gets a new phone will be rewarded with the 640 area code.

The new exchange was introduced last year because Neustar, the company that administers phone numbers for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), projected it would run out of 609 phone numbers due to the increased use of cell phones over the past several years.

Existing phone numbers remain the same, and the price of making a phone call doesn’t change, according to the Board of Public Utilities. Local calls remain local regardless of what the area code is, and all three digit numbers (911, 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711 and 811) remain the same.

The 609 exchange has been in place for decades. In 1999, the 856 area code was introduced to a portion of South Jersey. At that point, some existing 609 numbers were replaced.

The 609 area code is still used in Atlantic, Cape May, Mercer and Ocean counties. The list of all municipalities that use the 609 exchange is available here.

Back on Jan. 20, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities instituted a “permissive” dialing period, in which residents who have 856 or 609 area codes must dial “1” before making a call. Anyone who forgot to dial “1” would still have their call put through.

On Aug. 18, the real deal kicks in. Anyone with those exchanges must dial “1,” and if they don’t, their call won’t go through. Below is a description of the new dialing procedure:

• Calls made from 609 or 640 numbers to other 609 or 640 numbers must dial the area code with all phone numbers;
• Calls made from 609 or 640 numbers to any area code other than 609 or 640 must also dial “1;”
• Calls made from 856 numbers to any area code other than 856 must also dial “1;” and
• Phone calls from 856 numbers to other 856 numbers will only require the phone number to be dialed.

All services, automatic dialing equipment, or other types of equipment that are programmed to dial a phone number from a 609 area code or an 856 area code to a 609 area code must be reprogrammed to take into account the new dialing procedures.

Equipment programmed to dial a seven-digit number from an 856 area code to an 856 area code does not need to be reprogrammed. Some examples of such equipment are life safety systems and medical monitoring devices, stored telephone numbers in contact lists in phones, PBXs, fax machines, ankle monitors, Internet dial-up numbers, alarm security systems and gates, speed dialers, call forwarding settings, voicemail services, etc. Anyone who is unsure about their equipment should contact their medical alert or security provider.

Residents should also check their personal and business stationery, checks, advertising materials, websites, contact information, and personal or pet ID tags to ensure the area code is included in the telephone number.

For more information, call your service provider or visit http://www.nj.gov/bpu/.

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