Northwest Florida will soon have a new area code. The current 850 area code will run out of available phone numbers in early 2022, and state regulators approved the addition of the 448 area code to add additional numbers. A mandatory switch to using 10-digits was set to begin on Saturday, February 20th, but that has been delayed until May 22nd, 2021. Current telephone numbers including current area code, will not change, but the area code plus the telephone number will have to be dialed for all local calls. Long distance calls will continue to require dialing 1 plus the area code and then the telephone neumber.