I’m in area code 903. Some time recently a new area code popped up covering the same area, 430. Here’s my situation. For my home phone, I have VoIP with a toll-free number. When I got it, it was worth the money as I couldn’t get a phone number in the local area with this company and I had a couple of friends who called me from around the country. Well they hardly call me anymore (and they have free long distance anyway). Now the company offers a number in the city I live in, Longview. However, it’s in the new area code, 430. The website says that if I downgraded to the regional plan with a 430 area code, I’d be able to call anyone in 903 or 430 local. I’m wondering if 903 people from landline phones could call me as a local call though. I’ve never known anyone with a 430 number. I don’t even know who I could call to ask. I would think people in the same area (even the same city) would still be able to call me free despite the other area code. But if they can’t, I’d be better off with a 903 number from Marshall, even though it would be annoying to explain why I have a home phone number from another city.
Yes, anyone with a landline 903 number could call your 430 VoIP number with no toll charge (provided the 430 number was actually assigned from within the local Longview area, and your 903 caller is in the same local calling area).
430 is known as an overlay area code (in that it overlays on top of the 903 area code). In that sense, telephone companies treat them identically.
Another overlay dweller checking in. Where I live, 416 was overlaid with 647. I am also local to parts of 905, which was overlaid with 289. All these local calls are dialed and billed identically, no matter which area code they’re in.
Edit: all numbers based in your rate centre (Longview?) would be dialed and billed identically, no matter which area code they have. It wouldn’t cost any different to call a Longview 430 number as a Longview 903 number.
That’s what I figured. It doesn’t make much sense that people who can call 903 Longview numbers for free wouldn’t be able to call 430 Longview numbers. However, I remember an episode of Seinfeld where he got a number on a new area code and no one would call him because it was long distance. Hard to believe a 15-year old sitcom was wrong, but I guess I’ll go with the Longview number then.
That sitcom probably came out before they started to overlay area codes in the late 1990s. At that time, there probably weren’t that many places where you could call another area code and still have a local call.