March 3, also known as 303 Day, is an ideal time to dial into some of the ways that Colorado has made its mark on this country.
One of the original 86 area codes created by AT&T and the Bell System in 1947, 303 initially covered the entire state of Colorado. In 1988, a geographic split led to the addition of a second area code: 719, which is used in a large swath of counties south and east of the metro area. As the state grew, the 970 area code was added in 1995 to take on the rest of Colorado; when that couldn't handle the continued growth, 720 was added as an overlay to 303 in 1998.
But even though the boom has slowed, last year Colorado found that it still didn't have enough phone numbers, so next month it will introduce its fifth area code — 983 — to help cover the same area currently assigned to 303 and 720.
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