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321 area code to reflect the countdown capital of the world

The 321 area code is the Brevard County, Florida code. He was assigned to the area after a successful petition to commemorate Space Coast’s impact on the county. The 3-2-1 code resembles the countdown launched by the numerous spaceships from Cape Canaveral. Part of the 321 also overlaps the 407 area code in the Orlando area. Currently, this is the only code in North America that is both an overlay of one established area code and the main code of another. Furthermore, this is also the only code currently used with SatCom satellite phone units.

The Florida 321 code has been in service since 1999. It has 230 landlines and 87 wireless prefixes (exchanges) served by 44 operators. Covers 4 counties, 387 zip codes, and 39 cities, including Melbourne, Palm Bay, Cocoa, Titusville, Merritt Island, Rockledge, Cocoa Beach, Satellite Beach, and Cape Canaveral. All of these places belong to the Eastern Time Zone (ET).

In December 1998, following the September 1998 “407 Area Code Relief” hearings, the Florida PSC issued this order:

“Customer concerns are also extremely important to our decision. In his testimony, public witness Robert Osband suggested that we implement a split using a new code. He had searched the NANPA database for all available codes and recommended that we implemented the area code “321” to indicate the countdown, appropriate for Brevard County, where the Kennedy Space Center is located and commonly known as “the Space Coast.”

On February 10, 1999, the Florida PSC issued a press release regarding the order that created the 321 code.

As of November 1, 1999, the permissive dialing period begins in non-overlapping areas, so this code completely replaced the 407 code in Brevard County only, allowing residents to keep 7-digit dialing . In the remaining 407 area, code 321 will be an overlay where residents will be required to have 10-digit dialing for all calls, local or long distance. Bravard County callers can use 407 or 321 to reach their group during the Permit Period. It is at this time that the public is informed to use the new code. Brevard County residents will need new stationery and business cards to reflect their new code, but they have 11 months to transition.

On December 1, 1999, mandatory 10-digit dialing begins only in the overlay area. The 321 code began issuing numbers for users in the Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties overlap area. This means that people in the overlay area must use 10-digit dialing, as the number they are trying to reach can be assigned in either code or both. Residents of the Overlay Area will keep their old phone number and will not need to change their stationery and business cards. Only newly issued phone numbers will get numbers in code 321.

On October 1, 2000, the mandatory use of the 321 area code begins in the non-overlapping area. As a result, Permissive Dialing ends. All callers must use the appropriate code when calling Brevard County. Since Brevard County still has only one area code, residents maintain 7-digit dialing for local calls.

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