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PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - The Philadelphia area is about to get a new area code. All you out there, you with your faces buried in your phones-- smart and otherwise. Hear this: the countdown is on to a brand new area code likely to be added to the city and some surrounding Pa. suburbs in the spring of 2018. It's a new world out there, people.
Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission is behind this outrage. They've just approved an "Area Code Relief Plan." It's really pretty simple. The existing 215 and 267 prefixes have exhausted their supply of "NXX codes." which obviously requires implementation of an "all-services distribution overlay."
Stunningly, most of the people FOX 29 talked to seemed willing to accept even more communications chaos in their lives.
22-year-old Andrew Scheppegrell moved to Philly from North Carolina this year and took his 336 area code with him.
"I mean, all my friends in college were from different states, so different area codes. I didn't even know my friends' area codes because I didn't need to. It was already plugged into my phone. So, having different area codes isn't really a big deal to me," he explained.