Western Kentucky seeks additional area code

FRANKFORT, Ky. - With the ever-growing use of cell phones, western Kentucky has nearly exhausted the 270 area code and is in line for an additional one.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission is weighing a request to make the next area code available to all new phone customers throughout the region, rather than to apply it geographically.

That would mean people would have to dial the area code to reach even their closest neighbors who end up with the proposed new number.

Chatter about a new area code for western Kentucky had died down nearly two years ago when the Public Service Commission withdrew its approval for one.

It turned out at the time that more nearly 1 million phone numbers with the 270 area code remained. But those numbers are expected to be exhausted in 2015, prompting the North American Numbering Plan Administrator, which oversees the distribution of phone numbers, to renew the request for an additional area code.

"It's kind of a Yogi Berra case: It's deja vu all over again," said Public Service Commission spokesman Andrew Melnykovych.