Arizona’s 520 area code was expected to be retired in 2027, when the Arizona Corporation Commission estimated it would exhaust all phone numbers under the three-digit code.
But Doug Clark, the commission' s executive director, said utility staff have been able to preserve it for a bit longer by weeding out organizations using 520 for robocalls or spam and saving those numbers for the average consumer.
"Because we are now asking harder questions and monitoring that, some of those folks are less likely to utilize the 520 number because they know we’re watching," Clark said.
New 520 numbers could now be issued for another three years, Clark said, but eventually, southern Arizonans will need a new three-digit area code.
Arizona currently has five area codes: 480, 520, 602, 623 and 928.
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For the last several years, there’s been an effort to give cities back some of their ability to regulate that market; the state generally took it away in 2016. -
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren made his third annual state address in Shiprock on Tuesday, outlining his administration’s accomplishments amid ongoing efforts to remove him from office before his term expires this year. -
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Attorney General Kris Mayes says the Arizona Corporation Commission went against the state constitution in granting Tucson Electric Power the ability to come to its own rate agreement for the data center. -
Tribes are still figuring out how to start and finish renewable energy projects amid the Trump administration freezing or eliminating federal dollars from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which directed more than $720 million to Indian Country.
