Area code 320

The numbering plan area (NPA) excludes the Twin Cities metro region.

The area code was created in 1996, by a split of NPA 612, which stretched border-to-border from Wisconsin through the Twin Cities to South Dakota.

320 was the fourth Minnesota area code, and the first new one in the state in 42 years.

The growth of the Twin Cities placed high demand on telecommunication services, and the proliferation of cell phones, pagers, fax machines and dial-up Internet access caused rapid exhaustion of available telephone numbers.

In the split, The Twin Cities region retained 612, with St.