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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