Area codes 508 and 774 are North American Numbering Plan (NANP) telephone area codes for the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Presently, this service area includes southcentral and most of southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the Islands.
Area code 508 was created on July 16, 1988, as a split from area code 617. Prior to this split, the entirety of eastern and central Massachusetts was assigned to the 617 area code – and callers only needed to dial 7 digits to reach anyone else in that same area. Beginning on January 1, 1989, use of the 508 area code became mandatory for calls outside the 508 area code, local calls allowed 7 digit dialing within the same area code at the time.
On September 1, 1997, area code 508 was split again, with area code 978 taking over the northern "half" of that service area. Area code 774 is an overlay area code that was added to share the 508 service area, beginning on May 2, 2001 and continuing to the present day.
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