Are you 716 or 624? Western New York is getting a second area code after the Public Service Commission announced the new 3-digit code Wednesday.

For more than three quarters of a century, Buffalo-area phone numbers have started with three numbers immediately recognized by anyone who has ever lived here: 716. Starting Monday, if you request ...

A new area code will be assigned to new phones put into service in 2024 as a measure to prevent phone numbers from being exhausted.

Officials estimate the 716 area code is going to run out of phone numbers early in 2024, and any changes have to be approved by the state.

The 624 area code will start being assigned as early as April 2024 to residential and business customers requesting new service or additional lines. That is the earliest all of the unassigned 716 ...

Officials estimate that the 716 area code will run out of phone numbers soon, so Western New York is getting a new area code ...

In response, the commission says a new area code “is expected to be activated before the second quarter of 2024,” when all available 716 numbers are expected to be used up.

The New York State Public Service Commission said this is in response to the North American Numbering Plan Administrator’s forecast of a shortage of telephone numbers in the 716 area code.

This meant either Buffalo or Rochester would have to give up 716 and get a new area code. But these three numbers were already a part of Western New York's identity.

That's how area code 716 was divided in 2001, when Buffalo kept 716 and Rochester got a new code, 585. There are inconveniences to each option.

The Buffalo area, which kept the 716 area code, is good to go until 2023, according to the NANPA’s latest projections. The next change in New York will be in Suffolk County.