Area code 710

Area code 710 is a special area code, reserved to the federal government of the United States in 1983. As of December 2006, it had only one working number, 710-NCS-GETS (710-627-4387), which requires a special access code to use.

See Government Emergency Telecommunications Service for more information on this service.

Prior usage of 710

The 710 area code was one of three US regional area codes for the former AT&T TWX (TeletypeWriter eXchange) network, sold to Western Union in 1969 and renamed as Telex II. It covered the US Northeast (New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and West Virginia).

The original TWX area codes were 510 in the United States and 610 in Canada. The addition of 710 in the Northeast, 810 in the South (plus Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky) and 910 west of the Mississippi allowed each major city one or more local exchange prefixes in the special area code.[1]

The special U.S. TWX area codes (510, 710, 810, 910) were decommissioned in 1981. Canada moved its remaining 1-610 numbers to area code 600 in 1992.

Current usage of 710

GETS is intended to be used in an emergency or crisis situation when the landline network is congested and the probability of completing a normal call is reduced.[2] It provides alternate carrier routing, high probability of completion, trunk queuing and exemptions from network management controls.[3]

There is currently only one known working phone number in this area code.[4] A special access code of 12 digits is required for using the service. Upon dialing this phone number, the caller hears a mechanical beep which prompts the caller to enter the access code. If a correct code is entered, they are prompted to dial the destination number (area code + number). If an access code is not entered at the beep, the call is then redirected to a live human operator who then asks for the access code.

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See also

References
  1. Traffic Routing Guide, sec. 15-16, AT&T, 1975
  2. https://www.dhs.gov/government-emergency-telecommunications-service-gets
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-09-24. Retrieved 2014-10-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. http://www.corp.att.com/stateandlocal/docs/US_GETS_Market_Insight.pdf
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