Area code 859

Thus, conventional wisdom would have suggested that Lexington and Northern Kentucky should have retained 606 in the 1999 split.

Combined, Lexington and Northern Kentucky accounted for two-thirds of the old 606's population, along with the great majority of its landlines and cell phones.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission and BellSouth (now part of AT&T), then the region's main telephone carrier, decided to let the rural portion retain 606 to spare this notoriously impoverished area the added expense and burden of switching to a new area code.

It includes smaller cities and towns such as Nicholasville, Richmond, Danville, Covington, Versailles, Florence, Mount Sterling and Winchester.

The digits 859 spell out "UKY" on a standard telephone keypad—a nod to Lexington being home of the University of Kentucky.