Area code 206

This includes such suburbs as Shoreline and Lake Forest Park; Mercer, Bainbridge, and Vashon Islands; and portions of metropolitan Seattle from Des Moines to Woodway.

By the start of the 1990s, however, 206 was nearing exhaustion of central office codes from proliferation of cell phones, pagers, and fax machines.

[1] Numerous residents in the Seattle exurbs protested about no longer being associated with 206, leading US West, now part of Lumen Technologies, to return these to 206 shortly after the split.

As part of the reintegration, the cities of Des Moines and Woodway were both split between the new area codes, required by the capacity of the switching centers.

The return of the Seattle exurbs, combined with the continued proliferation of cell phones, faxes, and pagers, hastened a three-way split of the 206 territory, effective on April 25, 1997.