973 Area Code – Time Zone, Location, History & Counties

Area code 973 is located in the Eastern time zone and covers northern New Jersey, including Newark, Paterson, Clifton, Passaic, and East Orange. Established on June 1, 1997, to relieve pressure on the 201 area code, it features an overlay code 862 serving the exact same region.

Where is area code 973?

Area code 973 is located in northern New Jersey and covers Newark, Paterson, Clifton, Passaic, and East Orange. It has a single overlay (862) that serves the same area.

What time zone is area code 973?

The 973 area code is located in the Eastern timezone (America/New_York).

History

Creation: Area code 973 was put into service on June 1, 1997 and was the 196th area code in service. It was one of 43 area codes introduced in 1997. In 2001, area code 862 was created and is currently an overlay to 973. It was the 4th area code in the state of New Jersey. New Jersey currently has 10 area codes. It was created to relieve the pressure on the 201 area code as the numbers in 201 were being exhausted.

Middle digit: Until 1953, the middle digit was restricted to either a 0 or a 1 where a zero indicated that the area code covered the entire state while a 1 indicated that the area code served only a portion of a state. When the 973 area code was created in 1997, it was the 47th area code without 0 or 1 as the middle digit.

Mnemonics: Prior to 1995, the middle digit of area codes was restricted to a 0 or 1 which do not correspond to a letter on a phone’s dialing pad. So, only area codes created in 1995 or later can have a mnemonic. The mnemonics for area code 973 include WPD, WPE, WPF, WQD, WQE, WQF, WRD, WRE, WRF, WSD, WSE, WSF, XPD, XPE, XPF, XQD, XQE, XQF, XRD, XRE, XRF, XSD, XSE, XSF, YPD, YPE, YPF, YQD, YQE, YQF, YRD, YRE, YRF, YSD, YSE, YSF, ZPD, ZPE, ZPF, ZQD, ZQE, ZQF, ZRD, ZRE, ZRF, ZSD, ZSE, and ZSF. Let us know if one of these mnemonics fits area code 973 so we can feature it.