The 304 area code serves the entire state of West Virginia — Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, Wheeling, Parkersburg, Beckley, and every county between the panhandles — and has shared that statewide footprint with the 681 overlay since March 28, 2009. NANPA’s database dates both the assignment and the in-service start of 304 to January 1, 1947: one code for one state, from the numbering plan’s first day.
An unplanned 304 on the screen is typically routine West Virginia traffic — the code is native everywhere from Wheeling’s panhandle to the southern coalfields — yet the display alone establishes nothing about who dialed.
304 at a glance
| Quick fact | Answer |
|---|---|
| In service since | January 1, 1947 |
| Split from | Original 1947 code — statewide from day one, never split |
| Overlay | 681, in service March 28, 2009 |
| Territory anchors | Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, Wheeling, Parkersburg |
| Dialing | Ten-digit local dialing, mandatory since February 28, 2009 |
| Exhaust projection | Q4 2033 for the combined 304/681 pool, per NANPA’s April 2026 study |
West Virginia’s numbering history fits on an index card: one code for sixty-two years, a two-week flirtation with a split, then an overlay that changed nobody’s number. NANPA’s records list exactly two codes for the state — and the younger one, 681, blankets the same territory rather than dividing it. The map drawn in 1947 is still the map.
Sixty-two years as the whole state
Several of the January 1947 originals began life covering an entire state, and most of them surrendered territory as demand grew. Across the Potomac, Maryland’s 301 — another 1947 original — needed the 240 overlay by June 1997. West Virginia’s code simply kept working through the interstate era, the death of the party line, and the first two decades of cell phones, without shedding a county.
That durability had a plain explanation — numbering demand tracks population and access lines, and West Virginia added both slowly. Slow is not never, though. When relief finally landed on the Public Service Commission’s desk in Case No. 00-0953-T-PC, the state faced the same fork every maturing code eventually reaches.
The fifteen-day split order
On January 29, 2008, the West Virginia PSC ordered relief the disruptive way: a two-way geographic split along the Charleston–Clarksburg LATA boundary. Under that order, subscribers on one side of the line would keep 304 while the other side renumbered into a fresh code — the painful half of the split-versus-overlay decision.
Fifteen days later it was gone. On February 13, 2008, the commission granted petitions for reconsideration filed by the parties, reversed its January order, and directed an all-services overlay instead. NANPA’s Planning Letter PL-375 (March 21, 2008) recorded the about-face and confirmed the part that mattered most to subscribers: the new 681 would serve the same geographic area as 304, and no existing number would change.
A TEST number and a quiet cutover
PL-375’s schedule ran on rails. Permissive dialing — seven or ten digits, either completed — opened at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on July 26, 2008. Carriers could order 681 prefixes from NANPA beginning September 28, 2008. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory on February 28, 2009, and March 28, 2009 stood as the overlay’s effective date, the earliest a 681 prefix could go live.
Verification even had its own phone number: from December 28, 2008 through June 28, 2009, a call to 681-990-TEST (8378) played a recorded announcement confirming a carrier’s routing to the new code worked. The contact roster attached to the planning letter doubles as a portrait of the state’s telecom landscape — alongside Verizon and AT&T sit War Telephone and Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks.
The early conversion aged well. When the FCC’s 988 order — FCC 20-100, adopted July 16, 2020 and released the next day — pushed 82 seven-digit codes onto ten-digit dialing, NANPA’s PL-556 (January 8, 2021) tabulated them state by state, and West Virginia appears nowhere in that table. Twelve years of ten-digit habit meant there was nothing left to convert.
Delaware’s 302 shows the road not taken: a fellow 1947 original still covering its whole state with no overlay, it held onto seven-digit dialing until the 988 transition finally swept it onto the 2021 list.
Exhaust penciled in for 2033
NANPA’s exhaust study for April 2026 — assembled from NRUF and code-assignment data as of March 1, 2026 — lands the combined 304/681 pool in the fourth quarter of 2033. That is one quarter sooner than the October 2025 forecast, and the report’s footnote gives the reason plainly: increased historical and projected demand. Whatever the population charts say, West Virginia’s appetite for prefixes is growing.
Nothing since has moved the date. NANPA’s July 6, 2026 revision sheet stopped at four Texas complexes, and the administrator’s database as of mid-August 2026 lists 304 and 681 with clean status lines — nothing in jeopardy, nothing in relief planning. The relief-status report refreshed on August 14, 2026 tracks a dozen open projects across the country; West Virginia is not among them.
Seven years of paper runway leaves the next chapter unwritten, and whenever a relief docket does open, it will start from an easier place than 2008’s did — the dialing conversion is long since done. For now, the prefix inventory behind the forecast still has room.
One display, local across a whole state
Most outbound teams juggle a map — the right code for one metro is the wrong code two counties over. West Virginia deletes the problem. A 304 display is native from Wheeling’s panhandle to the southern coalfields, a 681 display signals exactly the same thing, and one number choice covers every prospect in the state. What matching a display to its market does for answer rates is laid out in our local presence guide.
Statewide recognition also makes the code worth faking: caller ID spoofing can graft 304 onto a call from anywhere. The line between looking local and being verifiable is drawn at the carrier layer, where calls get signed.
SIPNEX’s FCC carrier authorization is held outright — no reseller arrangement — and it stocks local DID numbers for individual rate centers across US markets, West Virginia among them, inventory permitting. They arrive over SIP trunking into the PBX or dialer you run today, each outbound call carrying an A-level signature from SIPNEX’s own STIR/SHAKEN certificate, with toll-free coverage running through the company’s RespOrg registration.
Short answers on the 304 area code
Does the 304 area code cover all of West Virginia?
Yes. The code has served the entire state since January 1, 1947 — Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, Wheeling, Parkersburg, Beckley, and both panhandles — and the 681 overlay has covered the identical statewide territory since March 28, 2009. The whole footprint keeps Eastern time, and no split has ever divided it.
What separates a 304 number from a 681 number?
Age, not geography. Under NANPA Planning Letter PL-375, 681 overlays exactly the territory 304 serves, so both codes mean West Virginia. The overlay was assigned on January 30, 2008 and took effect March 28, 2009; no existing 304 number changed — 681 simply opened a second pool of numbers over the same map.
When did ten-digit dialing start in the 304 area code?
Permissive dialing opened on July 26, 2008, and ten digits became mandatory on February 28, 2009 — a month before the 681 overlay’s effective date. The head start meant the 988 transition asked nothing of West Virginia: NANPA’s PL-556 list of 82 codes converting for the crisis line contains no West Virginia entry. Dialing 1 plus ten digits also completes, at carrier discretion.
How close is the 304 area code to exhaust?
NANPA’s April 2026 analysis puts the combined 304/681 inventory at the fourth quarter of 2033 — one quarter earlier than the previous forecast, attributed to increased demand — while the July 6, 2026 revisions left it untouched. As of August 2026 the pair shows neither a jeopardy flag nor an active relief project, so a third West Virginia code remains a question for the 2030s.
Can a business outside West Virginia carry a 304 area code number?
Yes. A West Virginia DID belongs to a rate center, not a street address, and over SIP it rings phones in any state. The variable is inventory in the specific rate center when you order; SIPNEX provisions local DIDs and lands them in the phone system your office already runs.
From the Ohio River towns to the Eastern Panhandle, a single code reaches every West Virginia prospect. Numbers in the 304 region come from SIPNEX under a direct FCC authorization, travel by SIP trunk, and carry A-level signatures from the company’s own STIR/SHAKEN certificate. (833) 665-2220 reaches the team, the contact page takes written questions, and pricing is public.
Keep reading.
The carrier built by operators, for operators.
FCC-licensed carrier with its own STIR/SHAKEN SP certificate. Operator-owned. SIP trunks built for operators who dial at volume.