The 202 area code serves the District of Columbia. It was one of the original North American area codes established in October. The entire WMEA (Washington Metropolitan Exchange Area) was reachable via long-distance services by dialing area code 202. With 202 facing exhaustion in late 2022, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator announced in October 2020 that area code 771 would be added to the numbering plan area of the District of Columbia. The new dialing procedure requires that all calls in the 202 area code that are currently dialed with seven digits will need to be dialed using area code + telephone number. The same dialing procedure will apply to telephone numbers that are assigned with the new 771 area code. Beginning October 9, 2021, if you have a 202 area code, you must dial the area code + telephone number on all calls, including calls within the same area code. On and after this date, if you do not dial the area code + telephone number, your calls will not complete and a recording will instruct you to hang up and dial again, including the area code.