Area codes 615 and 629 arearea codes inTennessee servingNashville (Davidson County) and the 12 surrounding counties. 615 is the main area code, while 629 is anoverlay covering the same area that began service in 2014.Murfreesboro,Franklin,Brentwood,Gallatin,Hendersonville, andLebanon are other major cities in the 615/629 service territory.
When area codes were introduced in October 1947, Tennessee's only area code was901. During 1954, in aflash-cut, most of the state east of theTennessee River's western bend was assigned 615, while 901 was restricted toMemphis and the western third of the state. This configuration remained in place for over 41 years.
In September 1995, most of the eastern portion of 615—includingChattanooga,Knoxville, and theTri-Cities—was assignedarea code 423. The dividing line between 615 and 423 mostly tracked along the boundary between the Eastern and Central Time Zones; generally, Tennessee's share of the Eastern Time Zone transferred to 423. As a result, the state's three area codes were roughly coextensive with the traditionalGrand Divisions of Tennessee; 423 served almost all ofEast Tennessee, 615 served nearly all ofMiddle Tennessee, and 901 served nearly all ofWest Tennessee.
Although this was intended to be a long-term solution, within a year 615 was nearing exhaustion due to the rapid growth of the Nashville area, as well as the proliferation of cell phones and pagers. This forced yet another split in September 1997; the 615 area was reduced to its current size, while most of the western, southern, and eastern portions of the old 615 territory—includingClarksville,Cookeville,Columbia, andTullahoma—was split off asarea code 931, which now almost entirely surrounds 615. This made 615 largely coextensive with the inner ring of theNashville metropolitan area.
In 1999, theNorth American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) informed theTennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA) that the available telephone numbers in the 615 area code would be exhausted by the fourth quarter of 2000.[1] The TRA andtelecommunications providers implemented several number conservation measures[1] that succeeded in averting the predicted crisis. In 2003 the NANPA notified the TRA that the area code was not projected to exhaust its supply of numbers for at least five years.[2] As of March 2012 it was estimated that it would exhaust in the second quarter of 2015, by which time an additional split or anoverlay might be necessary.[3][4] An overlay of 615—which would be Tennessee's first overlay—was recommended.[5][6] The decision to implement the new area code as an overlay, rather than a split, was made to spare Nashville-area residents and businesses the expense and burden of having to change their numbers, which would have required en masse reprogramming of cell phones.
Area code 629 was approved on October 21, 2013. Permissive dialing began on July 26, 2014, during which it was possible to make calls with either seven orten digits. Ten-digit dialing has been required since late February 2015.[7][8][9]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| North:270 | ||
| West:931 | area code 615/629 | East:931 |
| South:931 | ||
| Kentucky area codes:270/364,502,606,859 | ||