Area code 570 was created when the 717 numbering plan area was divided on December 5, 1998. It was the first new Pennsylvania area code created outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh since the implementation of the area code system.
In 2009, it was projected that 570 would run out of numbers in the third quarter of 2011. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) considered four options: an overlay plan and three configurations of dividing. Two of the splits would have left Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, the two largest cities in the territory, with the same area code.[1] On July 15, 2010, the PUC decided that the new area code, 272, would be implemented as an overlay. The area code entered service on March 28, 2013. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory in northeastern Pennsylvania on September 21, 2013.[2]
In 2015, only eleven unassigned central office prefixes remained in 570. By 2017, only one exchange was left in February, and that exchange was assigned by May.
Service area
Counties
Locations are approximate. Area code 570/272 may only cover a portion of these counties, and it may spill into neighboring areas not listed.