Area code 801
Bell Laboratories and AT&T was the body that developed the concept of area codes. Though the idea was conceived in the year 1940, it was put into effect in the year 1947. The United States of America and Canada were included in it and this system was known as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). During the year 1947, the states and provinces the states and provinces were represented by single area codes. There were a total 86 area codes during that time.
Few states or provinces which had more than one area code were assigned three digit area codes with the digit, '1' in the middle. The first and the third digits were allotted depending upon the population of the area. For example the New York City area was allotted 212 as its area code; where as the surrounding areas were represented by '914'. This was because, the phone at that times worked on rotary dialing system. Lower numbers like 1 or 2 required shorter "dial pulls". Thus the logic was, cities with most population would be called more, as such the effort in calling them should be less. A few of the original Canada and United States are 403, 204, 205, 416, and 415.
The area code 801 mainly represents the regions of northern Utah. It solely served the entire state till 1997. The counties beyond Wasatch Front were represented by the area code 435. However, the increase in the use of telephone services, in turn increased the demand for new numbers. Thus, on March 1, 2009 the code area code 385 was overlaid on the telephone code 801. The Utah Public Service Commission approved a split for the code 801, in the year 2000. This split came into effect in 2001.
Though Salt Lake County was retained by 801, the counties like Weber, Davis, and Morgan were to come under the area code 385. In the year 2007, the Public Service Commission of Utah announced that the maintenance measures is likely be done by around June 2008. They finally necessitated the implementation of the new area code 385. The same announcement also held that the telephone code 385 will be not split, but overlaid, with 801. This would enable both the codes to serve all five counties that were till previously being served by the area code 801 only.
The area code 801, at present covers 17 counties of the state including Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, and Iron. Cities like Alpine, American Fork, Bingham Canyon, Bountiful, Castle Dale, Cedar City, Cedar Valley, Centerville, Clearfield, Corydon, Draper, and Eden are also represented by the area code 801. This code has 757 exchanges. These include most of the exchanges from 201 to 999. As per the census of year 2000, more than 1710100 people were using this code. Bee Line Long Distance, CCI Communications L.L.C, Burton Group, Telnetz, Telarus, Mountain West Telecom, Intellisys, and CentraCom Interactive are the service providers that offer telephonic communication services to the people of this region through the use of the code 801.