Area code 612

The numbering plan area comprises the city of Minneapolis and a few surrounding municipalities such as Fort Snelling, St. Anthony, and Richfield.

The 218 region was reshaped to be more square, absorbing much of the old 612's northeastern portion, and now consisted of roughly the northern half of the state.

However, the continued growth of the Twin Cities and the proliferation of cell phone and pager services pushed 612 back to the brink of exhaustion within a year.

Within another year, however, it became apparent that the creation of 651 would not free up enough numbers in the western Twin Cities to meet demand.

The Twin Cities are home to most of the state's landlines, pagers, and cell phones, and their continued proliferation forced a three-way split of 612 that took effect in 2000.

The eastern half of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus, in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights, is an exception to the regional numbering plan.