I Don't Think We're in NYC Anymore, Part 2

When I first contacted a real estate agent in the Albany area to inquire about the desirable neighborhoods, I was annoyed when he sent me back a telephone number without an area code. How did he expect me to reach him without an area code? After moving up here, I am finding that this is a common practice to display phone numbers sans area code.


New York City is served by a few different area codes. There is of course, the 212 for Manhattan and 718 for the “other” boroughs (how elitist of Manhattan to codify such a distinction!). Then there are the many new area codes for the ever growing cell phone numbers, such as 347, 917 and 646. In Albany, it’s all 518 every day of the week. My office land line and my business cell phone both start with 518, and it’s acceptable practice to simply omit the area code in most cases. I can even make an outgoing phone call without the area code (!).