Two Kansas area codes switch to 10-digit dialing for local calls starting Sunday
Phone users in two Kansas area codes — 620 and 785 — will have to dial 10 digits to complete a local call starting Sunday.
Users in the 316 area code, which includes Wichita, and the 913 area code, which includes the Kansas City suburbs, managed to dodge the new rule and will still be able to make calls dialing only seven digits.
Area code 316 includes all of Wichita and most of its suburbs in Butler and Harvey counties. However, the southwest edge of Sedgwick County is in the 620, including the cities of Clearwater and Viola.
While 316 and 913 cover the most populous areas of Kansas, 620 and 785 cover more than three-quarters of the state’s geography.
The reason for the change is to avoid conflicts when the Federal Communications Commission implements 988 as the three-number speed-dial code to reach a suicide prevention hotline, much like a user today would dial 911 for local emergency services or 411 for directory assistance.
In the 620 and 785 areas, “they have 988 as the prefixes for some of their numbers,” said Kansas Corporation Commission spokeswoman Linda Berry. “So that would interfere with the 988 abbreviated dialing.”
Without the area code requirement, the new system would connect anyone who tries to dial a local number starting with 988 to suicide prevention.
From Sunday on, phone users in the 620 and 785 areas who try to dial without their area code will get a recording that the call cannot be completed.
The 316 and 913 areas don’t have to switch to 10-digit dialing because the phone companies there have never used 988 for local prefixes, Berry said.
The 988 number for suicide prevention is scheduled to start working on July 16, 2022, according to the KCC.
Until then, people wanting to reach suicide prevention will have to continue to dial 800-273-8255.
Overall, the switch to 10-digit dialing starting Sunday covers 82 area codes in 36 states.
The 620 area code covers roughly half of southern Kansas and completely surrounds the much smaller 316 area.
The 785 area covers roughly the northern half of Kansas, minus a carve-out along the Missouri border for the 913 area, that includes Kansas City suburbs of Johnson and Wyandotte counties.
Notable cities in the 785 include the state capital, Topeka; Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas; and Manhattan, home of Kansas State University.
