201
Area code

NJ

United States geographic area code, in service since 1947-01-01. Part of the 201/551 overlay complex — ten-digit dialing required.

Created 609. Created 908. Created 973. Created 551. Overlaid with 551 .

Statusin service
Introduced1947-01-01
JurisdictionNJ, US
Local dialing10D
Time zoneEastern
Last verified2026-09-17
Utilization 101% of assignable prefixes assigned As of 09/17/2026
0%800 of ~792 assignable NXX values (200–999 excl. N11)100%

Prefix-level assignment does not equal number-level exhaustion; thousands-block pooling extends capacity. First assignment on record 2001-01-22, most recent 2026-08-25.

Area codes serve rate-center geographies, not municipal boundaries. “NJ” identifies the jurisdiction, not an exact city footprint.

Top assignees

Ranked by assigned prefixes · initial assignee ≠ current carrier
Largest initial assignees in area code 201
RankAssigneePrefixesShare
01 VERIZON NEW JERSEY, INC. 273 34.1%
02 NEW CINGULAR WIRELESS PCS, LLC - DC 69 8.6%
03 MCIMETRO ACCESS TRANSMISSION SERVICES LLC 66 8.3%
04 CELLCO PARTNERSHIP DBA VERIZON WIRELESS - NJ 64 8%
05 OMNIPOINT COMMUNICATIONS, INC. - NJ 52 6.5%
06 LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS, LLC - NJ 46 5.8%
07 TELEPORT COMMUNICATIONS AMERICA, LLC - NJ 32 4%
08 PAETEC ITEL, LLC 30 3.8%
09 METROPCS, INC. 28 3.5%
10 ONVOY, LLC - NJ 16 2%

Important: these are initial assignees from NANPA CO-code records — the carrier a prefix was originally assigned to. Because of number portability, the current serving carrier of any individual number may differ.

Change history

Recorded events for this NPA

Planning letters & orders

Primary documents
NANPA planning letters for area code 201
DateDocumentSubject
2001-05-08 PL-277 ↗ NPA 551 To Overlay NPA 201; NPA 862 To Overlay NPA 973; and NPA 848 To Overlay NPA 732 (New Jersey)

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