Maine will remain a single-area-code state for at least the next six years, according to the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

The North American Numbering Plan Administrator had initially predicted that if Maine continued to operate with only the 207 area code, it would run out of phone numbers by 2027. Now, the commission announced Wednesday, the administrator has declared that Maine will have enough phone numbers until at least 2029. 

In a statement, the commission credited its own efforts to preserve or recover thousands of phone numbers, such as working with providers to limit the number of 10,000-number blocks they reserve at once, or asking providers to return unused phone numbers to the available pool.

"Since we first became aware of the risk to Maine’s 207 area code, two things have become clear: that preserving the area code is important to the people of Maine and that we have tools to help do so," said Philip L. Bartlett II, the commission’s chair.  

The commission has been working to recover phone numbers since 2018, in the wake of a growing number of service providers.