The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) announced Thursday that the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) now predicts that the state’s 207 area code will survive yet another year longer than previously expected.
Newest data suggests that the state will be able to continue issuing 207 phone numbers until the last few months of 2033.
This past October, the NANPA estimated that Maine would continue to be able to issue phone numbers with the 207 area code until September of 2032, roughly 3.5 years further into the future than the estimate they released in early 2023.
According to a press release published Thursday by the Maine PUC, the state is consistently on the brink of exhausting its supply of 207 numbers — despite the fact that only about 38 percent of available numbers are currently in use — as a result of distribution practices that “unnecessarily tie up large blocks of numbers without fully utilizing” them.
“We are pleased that the life of Maine’s 207 area code has been extended again,” said Maine PUC Chair Philip L. Bartlett II in Thursday’s statement. “As these efforts continue, we will keep Mainers posted on the progress that has been made.”
At the beginning of 2021, it was predicted that Maine would run out of 207 numbers as early as 2025. Thursday’s extension marks an approximate eight year increase in the 207 area code’s lifespan.
Mainers are not the only ones facing a phone number shortage, however, as the entire North American Numbering System could run out of available combinations at some point between 2047 and 2053.
Should the country exhaust its supply of phone numbers, the standard format would likely be expanded from ten digits to twelve, a solution that would add about 640 billion combinations to the pool.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has estimated, however, that making this switch could end up costing the country as much as $270 billion.
“By taking innovative steps to preserve the 207 area code, Maine is leading the way in reforming numbering practices nationwide,” the Maine PUC wrote in a statement Thursday.
Click Here to Read the Maine PUC’s Full Press Release
As of 2024, Maine is one of only eleven states that has continued to maintain a single area code.
The NANPA’s next report on its predicted area code exhaust dates will be released in October of this year.
