Area codes 803 and 839

Area codes 803 and 839 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the central part of the U.S. State of South Carolina. The numbering plan area (NPA) is anchored by the city of Columbia, the state capital. It also includes most of the South Carolina portions of the Charlotte, North Carolina and Augusta, Georgia metropolitan areas. 839, an all-service overlay, was approved by the South Carolina Public Service Commission in 2019.

Area code 803 is one of the original 86 area codes assigned in 1947, when it was assigned to serve the entire state. In 1995, the Upstate was split off into a separate numbering plan area with area code 864. Until then, South Carolina had been one of the most populated states with just one area code.

While this was intended as a long-term solution, the rapid growth of telecommunication service in Columbia, the Charlotte suburbs, and the coastal region brought 803 back to the brink of exhaustion within two years. As a result, in 1998 the coastal region was assigned area code 843.

In May 2020, area code 839 was added as an overlay for the 803 plan area. The new area code is used for new subscribers. This implementation made ten-digit dialing mandatory in the numbering plan area as of April 2020. Previously, a permissive ten-digit dialing period began in late October 2019.

Major cities

 * Aiken pop. 29,494
 * Columbia pop. 133,803
 * Rock Hill pop. 74,342
 * Sumter pop. 40,524

Counties

 * Richland
 * Sumter
 * Kershaw
 * Fairfield
 * Lee
 * Clarendon
 * Orangeburg
 * Calhoun
 * Lexington
 * Aiken
 * Lancaster
 * York
 * Chester
 * Newberry
 * Barnwell
 * Bamberg
 * Edgefield