Area code 612

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Area code 612 is the telephone numbering plan code for the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota and a few surrounding areas such as Fort Snelling and Richfield, Minnesota, currently the smallest area code in the state by land area. However, the region used to be much larger, accounting for the entire Twin Cities region and a wide swath surrounding it. The 612 and the metro calling area (Area codes, 651, 952, 763 in addition to 612) is the largest local calling area in the United States.

A map of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in 1947 showed the region defined as roughly 1/3rd of the area of Minnesota, with the separating line extending westward from Duluth, Minnesota to the center of the state, then down through the center. The rest of the state consisted of area code 218, which formed an "r"-shaped region around the 612 area code.

In 1954, the state was divided into three area codes. The 612 area code was rotated to reach out to the western edge of the state. It still included the Twin Cities, but no longer extended far to the north. The 218 region was made more square, covering roughly the top half of the state. The new area code 507 stretched across the southern 1/5th of the state, including cities such as Rochester and Mankato. Through the 1990s, those areas were modified slightly, but most of the changes have focused on subdividing the former 612 area code.

In 1996, the region was broken into two parts. Area code 320 took up all of the former 612 area outside of the Twin Cities, while 612 shrank. The 612 region was roughly split in half two years later in 1998, with Minneapolis and western suburbs retaining the old code and neighboring St. Paul and suburbs to the east gaining the new area code 651. The most recent split occurred in 2000, when the 612 code shrank to its current size, area code 763 was created to include the northwest suburbs, and area code 952 began to be used for southwest suburbs. The area code splits in the Twin Cities are unusual because they split along municipal, rather than central office, boundaries. This led to a sizeable number of exchanges being divided between two area codes, and a few being divided between three. [1] [2]

The St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is a notable exception to the regional numbering plan. Because of an integrated phone system between the main Minneapolis campus and the one to the east in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights, students and staff on that campus use the 612 area code.