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2023/01/04 - Mayor's Column: New Area Code

“AN OPEN DOOR TO O’FALLON”
A WEEKLY NOTE FROM MAYOR HERB ROACH
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I would like to wish all of You a Happy New Year.  One thing that is going to occur in 2023 that I have received questions about is the New 730 Area Code that was announced by the Illinois Commerce Commission in December. It will be coming to Southern Illinois in July of 2023.

The new 730 area code will “overlay” the existing 618 area code to address the need for more prefixes for the region.  The first prefix in the new area code will not be introduced until after July 7th of this year.  The current 618 area code is one of the original eighty-six area codes established in the United States in 1947.  It includes communities such as Alton, Belleville, Cairo, Carbondale, Centralia, E. St. Louis, Edwardsville, Marion and O’Fallon.

Starting July 7 th, customers in the 618-area code overlay region may be assigned a number in the 730-area code when they request new service or an additional line.  The 730-area code will co-exist everywhere in the region with the 618-area code.  Customers receiving the 730 area code will be required to dial 10 digits (the area code & phone number) for all local calls, just as customers with the 618 area code do today.

Everyone should know the following facts about the 618/730 area code overlay:

  • Existing telephone numbers, including area code will not change
  • The price of a call, coverage, or other rates and services will not change due to the overlay.
  • What is now a local call will remain a local call.
  • Customers in the overlay region will continue to dial the 10 digits for local calls within and between the overlay area codes and dial 1+10 digits for long distance calls.
  • Customers can still dial just three digits to reach 911 and 988, as well as 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, or 811 if those are now available in the community.

I hope that this information is helpful to you as we prepare to go through these changes, later this year.  For any additional information. Please contact your local service provider.

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open.