New 924 Area Code Approved For Rochester and Southern Minnesota

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St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - Minnesota regulators have cleared the way for the implementation of a new area code in southern Minnesota.

The State Public Utilities Commission recently voted unanimously to approve a telecommunication industry proposal to impose what is known as an "all-services distributed overlay" of the 507 area code. That means, rather than geographically dividing the area of the state currently served by the 507 area code, new customers in the existing geographical area will be assigned the new 924 area code while existing customers would retain the 507 area code.

It's expected the new area code will begin to be assigned in about 13 months. Once that happens, all calls would require the use of 10-digit dialing within the portion of the state currently served by the 507 area code.

According to PUC documents, change is needed because the 507 area code is projected to run out of phone numbers during the first three months of 2025. It's estimated the addition of the 924 area code will last approximately 37 years before a third area code will be necessary.

When it approved adding the new area code for southern Minnesota, the PUC Board also required telecommunication companies to implement clearly stated intercept message that would instruct consumers on how to properly place a call using 10-digit dialing if they attempted to place a call by dialing only 7-digits, which is currently allowed within the 507 area code zone.