North American telephone area codes 703 and 571 are area codes which serve most telephone installations in northern Virginia, including the independent cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park, as well as Arlington, Fairfax counties, and parts of Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, and Stafford counties. 703 was created as one of the original 86 North American area codes in October 1947. Prior to June 24 1973, it served the entire Commonwealth.
The map to the right is clickable; click on an area code to go to the page for that code.
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Local calls, regardless of the area code, are dialed as 10 digits, namely, area code, plus 7-digit number. Long-distance calls are dialed as 11 digits, namely, 1 + area code + number. Because of the overlay, 7-digit dialing from telephones using either area code is not permitted.[1]
571 and 703 serve the following cities and towns in Virginia: Alexandria, Annandale, Ashburn, Burke, Centreville, Chantilly, Dale City, Fairfax, Falls Church, Franconia, Great Falls, Groveton, Herndon, Lake Ridge, Leesburg, Lorton, Manassas, Manassas Park, McLean, Mount Vernon, North Springfield, Oakton, Occoquan, Reston, Springfield, South Riding, Sterling, Vienna, West Springfield, and Woodbridge, plus all or part of these counties: Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford.
On June 24, 1973, the 703 code began its first split (which became mandatory on January 1, 1974).[2] 703 was restricted to the northern and western regions of Virginia—from Arlington in the north to the Tennessee and Kentucky border— while everything from Danville eastward was reassigned to the 804 area code.
On June 19, 1995, most of the western portion of the old 703 area code was split off into the new 540 area code, and 703 was restricted to northern Virginia.
Area code 571 was introduced on March 1, 2000, as an overlay to the region served by 703. Area code 571 serves most new telephone numbers; while it is primarily associated with mobile telephone lines, it is also used for new landline numbers, including the United States Patent and Trademark Office upon moving to Alexandria; and the Fairfax County Public Schools, which moved its headquarters to the Falls Church area in 2006.
Without the overlay, it would have been necessary to split 703 further.
Although former competitors Bell Atlantic (a former Baby Bell) and GTE had assigned geographical monopolies varying by region in Virginia, they merged in the late 1990s to form Verizon, now the dominant local telephone service provider throughout Virginia (including both of these area codes). Over 85% of all telephone numbers in both of these area codes are served by Verizon, a regulated monopoly.
However, mobile telephone service is provided with numbers assigned these area codes by various operators such as Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile, in addition to Verizon Wireless, Verizon's joint venture with Vodafone.
Competition in the local telephone service market within these area codes has been joined by cable television operators such as Cox Communications, Comcast, and Verizon FiOS, which provide local telephone service running over their own broadband fiber optic telecommunication networks (which also provide cable television and high-speed internet services).
| Virginia area codes: 276, 434, 540, 571, 703, 757, 804 | ||
|---|---|---|
| North: 301/240 | ||
| West: 540 | area code 703/571 | East: 301/240, 202 |
| South: 540 | ||
| District of Columbia area codes: 202 | ||
| Maryland area codes: 240, 301, 410, 443 | ||