Area code 217, Telephone prefix in central Illinois, United States.
Area code 217 is a United States telephone prefix serving central parts of Illinois, including cities such as Springfield, Champaign, and Decatur across a region that covers more than three dozen counties. This prefix area includes both the state capital and several university and agricultural centers.
The telephone prefix area was established in 1947 as part of the North American numbering plan and initially covered all of Illinois outside the Chicago metropolitan region. Four years later, in 1951, eastern communities near St. Louis were separated and assigned to a different prefix.
The telephone prefix area connects communities around both the State Farm Insurance headquarters and the Archer Daniels Midland Company, two major employers in central Illinois. This part of the state also includes many smaller towns supported by farming and commerce, where local grain cooperatives and family businesses continue to shape daily life.
Since 2021, callers in this prefix area must dial ten digits even for local calls within the same community. When calling from outside the region, begin with 1 followed by 217 or the overlay prefix 447 before entering the seven-digit subscriber number.
Since 2021, the original prefix 217 shares its geographic region with the new prefix 447, meaning both are distributed across the same cities and counties. This overlay system was introduced because available telephone numbers were running out, so neighbors can now have different prefixes even though they live on the same street.
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