Area code 970

Area code 970 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the western and northern parts of the U.S. of State of Colorado. The numbering plan area includes Aspen, Breckenridge, Durango, Estes Park, Fort Collins, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction, Greeley, Loveland, Silverthorne, Steamboat Springs, and Vail.

Numbering plan areas of Colorado (blue) and area codes.^[1]

History

Area code 970 was established on April 2, 1995 in an area code split of area code 303, which was retained by the Denver metropolitan area.^[2]

In 2023, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator estimated that area code 970 would reach numbering exhaustion by 2026. On December 18, 2023, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved the addition of area code 748 for the all-services distributed overlay of NPA 970.^[3] The overlay complex is scheduled for service on July 7, 2025.^[4] No central office codes of area code 748 may be installed before complete exhaustion of area code 970.

Ten-digit dialing

Area code 970 has PCS telephone numbers assigned for the central office code 988 in the Fort Collins exchange.^[5] As of October 17, 2020, 988 has been assigned by law as a three-digit code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. To avoid conflicts in switching systems, the Federal Communications Commission ordered telecommunication carriers of 83 area codes, including 970, to transition to ten-digit dialing, even when the area code is not involved in an overlay complex. Per the timeline set by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator, permissive dialing began on April 24, 2021 and ten-digit dialing has been required from October 24, 2021.^[6]

See also

• Telecommunications portal
• Geography portal
• United States portal
• Colorado portal

• Geography of Colorado
• List of Colorado area codes
• List of North American Numbering Plan area codes
• List of populated places in Colorado