Area code 870 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for southern, eastern, and most of northern Arkansas. It was created on April 14, 1997 in a split from area code 501, Arkansas's original area code of 1947.

History

Area code 870 designates one of three numbering plan areas (NPAs) in Arkansas, 479, 501, and 870. It was the first to be created in an area code split of 501, and comprises most of the state outside Little Rock, Fort Smith, and Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers. Major cities in the area include Jonesboro, Mountain Home, Pine Bluff, Texarkana, El Dorado, and West Memphis.

In 2009, the Arkansas Public Service Commission projected that the supply of unassigned telephone numbers for 870 would run out in 2013, prompting a December 2009 approval of an all-service overlay complex in this portion of the state. Area code 327 was assigned for this purpose in January 2010.^[1] The release of little-used central office codes and the nationwide introduction of number pooling delayed the exhaustion of the numbering pool and the relief action was indefinitely suspended in June 2012.^[2][3]

Per a 2021 NPA exhaust study by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), area code 870 is projected to exhaust in the first quarter of 2025.^[4] Area code 327, per the Arkansas Public Service Commission, has been selected and is in the network preparation phase for relief as an all-service overlay code for the 870 numbering plan area^[5] with a projected in-service date of February 20, 2024. Mandatory ten-digit dialing of area code 870 will start on January 19, 2024, and by then callers will hear recorded messages if they continue to dial the old method. Permissive calling began in mid-July 2023.

In long-term planning, the NANPA projects a boundary elimination overlay involving all three Arkansas numbering plan areas (479, 501 and 870/327), resulting in a statewide overlay.^[6]

Central office prefixes

NOTE: 976 is assigned to Jonesboro. By January 2024 adding 870 will be needed and the prefixes 870 and 988 will become assignable.