Area codes 518 and 838

The blue area is New York State; the red is area code 518.

Area codes 518 and 838 are telephone area codes in eastern upstate New York. 518 was established as one of the original area codes in 1947. It covers 24 counties and 1,200 ZIP codes. It has 493 landline and 100 wireless exchanges serviced by 47 carriers.^[1] It is the largest area code in size in New York, extending from the eastern Mohawk Valley to the Vermont border, and from the Canada–US border to south of Albany. The bulk of the area code's population is in the Capital District (Albany, Schenectady, and Troy). Other major cities in the area code are Glens Falls and Plattsburgh.

518 is the only one of New York's original five Numbering Plan Areas that still has its original boundaries. Despite the presence of the Capital District and the proliferation of cell phones and pagers (particularly in the Capital District and Glens Falls), it was one of the few remaining original area codes (not counting those serving an entire state) that had never been split or overlaid. By the spring of 2016, however, 518 was on the verge of exhaustion, and it was projected that the region would need another area code by at least 2019.^[2] By the fall, however, it was anticipated that 518 would exhaust in the third quarter of 2017. An overlay area code, 838, was quickly approved, to be implemented in November 2017.^[3][4]

Communities served by this area code

See also

• List of New York area codes
• List of NANP area codes
• North American Numbering Plan

References

External links

• NANPA Area Code Map of New York
• List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload.com, 518 Area Code

Coordinates: 43°12′N 73°54′W / 43.2°N 73.9°W / 43.2; -73.9