Area codes 205 and 659 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the western and central parts of the U.S. State of Alabama, including the cities of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.
Area code 205 was one of the original area codes created in 1947 when the NANP was placed in operation by AT&T. It encompassed the entire state, making Alabama one of 34 states served by a single numbering plan area. By the 1990s, 205 was on the brink of exhaustion due to the state's growth and the proliferation of cell phones and pagers. In 1995, area code 334 was created to serve the area from Montgomery southward. The numbering plan area was reduced in size in 1998, when the northern and eastern portions were assigned area code 256.[1]
In October 2019, area code 659 was created as an overlay plan for the region served by 205. This change mandated ten-digit dialing for all calls.[2][3]