New suburban telephone area code approved

Chicago's West and South suburbs will receive a new telephone area code in the coming months to meet the demand for new telephone numbers. The 464 area code will overlay the 708 area code, the Illinois Commerce Commission said.

The 708 area code serves most of west and south Cook County and eastern and southern Will County. The 464 area code will be available only when all assignable prefixes in the 708 code have been exhausted, the panel said. That's not expected to occur until January.

With an overlay, an additional area code is added to the same geographic area as the existing area code, with all current phone customers retaining the original area code.

The 464 area code will be assigned to new customers requesting local phone service, cellular and paging services, and alarms, the commission said.

Customers seeking additional telephone lines will, in most cases, continue to be able to receive 708 telephone numbers, even after the 464 area code is in service, the commission said. Local calls will remain local calls.