Area codes 202 and 771

This is despite the fact that the WMEA was split between three numbering plan areas (NPAs): the District's 202, 301 in southern Maryland, and 703 in Northern Virginia.

By spring 1990, C&P Telephone (later part of Bell Atlantic and now Verizon), the Regional Bell Operating Company for the District, advised the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) that the last interchangeable central office code in the area would be assigned in the second half of the year.

[3] In Virginia, the delay amounted to six years, until 1996, when area code 540 was installed for the western portion of the old 703 territory; permissive dialing ended January 27, 1996.

The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia approved a plan to phase in the new area code over a 13-month period.

Areas such as Alexandria, Arlington,[12] Fairfax,[13] Falls Church, McLean and Tysons in Virginia[14] (703/571) and Rockville,[15] Gaithersburg,[16] Upper Marlboro,[17] Bethesda[18] and Landover in Maryland[19] (301/240) are a local call to Washington.