Phone Detective
Instant Phone Number Checks

Your son is flying off to New Jersey for higher studies and phone calls are the sole communication between both of you. Well, if that’s the case, then you need to dial the three digit number followed by his personal number. I know that it sounds pretty simple, but then with innumerable area codes allocated to New Jersey, finding the apt one seems a bit tedious. With the growing population of New Jersey, you will find more and more area codes being introduced every other day together with their overlays, mergers and splits. Now, please don’t get confused thinking about how to look for the relevant code to call up your son. Instead try familiarizing yourself with the different area codes grouped under New Jersey so that you find no trouble when it comes to contacting your son.

Before we start off with anything, let us first understand what exactly an area code is. The area code system was introduced in the year 1940 by Bell Laboratories and AT&T. However; it came into effect much later in the year 1947. It was referred to as NANP or North American Numbering Plan and included Canada as well as United States.

New Jersey comprises of nine area codes and area code 856 is one amongst those. This area code was introduced in the year 1999 after getting split from the area code 609. Area code 856 covers the southwestern area of New Jersey, specifically the Cherry Hill/Camden and Vineland regions and insignificant regions of Willingboro Township. In addition to this, it also covers the western area of Burlington County. The other areas of this county are served by area code 609. In general, area code 856 covers the regions that are directly adjoining to Philadelphia. The coverage region includes the eastern suburban areas of Philadelphia.

Though this area code has been assigned to both cell phones as well as landlines, yet till date many people residing in this area retain the previous area code, i.e. area code 609.

In the year 1951, area code 201 was first introduced in the United States and was accepted as a portion of NANP. Initially, this area code covered the overall state of New Jersey. Till 1958, New Jersey retained the same area code; however, in the same year this area code got split into a new area code referred to as area code 609.

The growing need for phone numbers for fax machines, businesses, cell phones and pagers called for a new area code. At this juncture, area code 856 was introduced in March 1999 by Bell Atlantic after it got split from area code 609. Soon after its introduction, this area code was approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Even after being introduced on March, 1999, area code 856 came into effect on 12th June, 1999. For the next five months, there was the provision for permissive dialing, thereby enabling to make calls even if you didn’t dial area code 856 before a phone number. But this practice was put to a halt since 13th November, 1999. Now that you have obtained a somewhat fair idea on area codes, I guess giving a call to your son would be pretty simple.