Area codes 540 and 826

Area codes 540 and 826 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the north-western region of the U.S. State of Virginia, including the Shenandoah Valley, the Roanoke metropolitan area, the northern and eastern parts in Virginia of the New River Valley, and the outermost parts of the Washington metropolitan area. The Virginia State Corporation Commission authorized the addition of 826 to the numbering plan area for implementation in May 2022.

History
Area code 540 was established on July 15, 1995, when numbering plan area 703 was divided. Arlington County, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Fairfax, Falls Church, Prince William County, Manassas, Manassas Park, Eastern Loudoun County, Northern Stafford County, and a very small portion of Fauquier County remained in area code 703, while the rest of the area was reassigned to area code 540.

Due to the continued growth of telecommunication services in the area, it was necessary to split 540 as well. On September 1, 2001, the farthest western region of Virginia was established as a separate numbering plan area with area code 276.

The pool of central office codes for the area code was projected to exhaust in 2022. For relief, the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved a plan in June 2020 to add area code 826 to form an all-services overlay, with an in-service date of May 14, 2022. This made ten-digit dialing mandatory in the overlay area.

Service area
The numbering plan area includes the communities of Bedford, Berryville, Blacksburg, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Cave Spring, Clifton Forge, Covington, Fincastle, Floyd, Fredericksburg, Front Royal, Greenville, Harrisonburg, Hot Springs, Lexington, Louisa, Luray, Madison, Mineral, Orange, Pulaski, Radford, Roanoke, Rocky Mount, Salem, Staunton, Warrenton, Little Washington, Waynesboro, and Winchester.

It serves the counties of Alleghany, Augusta, Bath, Botetourt, Clarke, Craig, Culpeper, Fauquier, Floyd, Franklin, Frederick, Giles, Highland, King George, Louisa, Madison, Montgomery, Orange, Page, Pulaski, Rappahannock, Roanoke, Rockingham, Rockbridge, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren, as well as portions of Bedford County, and a small portion of Albemarle County consisting of Afton and Greenwood that is in a LATA served by Verizon landline service rather than CenturyLink. It also partially serves western Loudoun County, whereas most of the county is in the numbering plan area 703/571.