The 662 area code covers northern Mississippi — Southaven and the DeSoto County side of the Memphis metro, Tupelo, Oxford, Starkville, Columbus, Greenwood, Greenville, and the Delta — created in an April 19, 1999 split of Mississippi’s original 601 code and joined by the 471 overlay on January 30, 2026. Every place that answered on 662 last year still does; 471 simply waits behind it.
A 662 buzzing in unannounced could be any of three markets that still transact by phone — commuter Memphis, college towns, the Delta — but the digits prove nothing: spoofing puts fake local numbers on real scam calls.
662 at a glance
| Quick fact | Answer |
|---|---|
| In service since | April 19, 1999 |
| Split from | 601, Mississippi’s original statewide code |
| Overlay | 471, in service January 30, 2026 |
| Territory anchors | Southaven, Tupelo, Oxford, Columbus, Greenville |
| Dialing | Ten digits, mandatory since October 24, 2021 |
| Exhaust projection | “100+” — more than a century out for the 471/662 pool, per NANPA’s April 2026 study |
Few codes have swung between feast and famine this hard. As recently as October 2025, NANPA projected the 662 pool dry by the third quarter of 2027. One overlay later, the April 2026 study refuses to print a date at all — the combined supply now runs past the forecast’s hundred-year horizon. What follows is how a farm-and-college code got there.
Two years, two splits, one remaining 601
Mississippi spent fifty years as a single code. 601 had covered the whole state since January 1, 1947, and it unwound in two quick cuts: the Gulf Coast left as 228 on September 15, 1997, and NANPA assigned 662 on September 18, 1998 to take the north. Planning Letter PL-NANP-166, issued March 4, 1999 by the Lockheed Martin-era NANP Administration, laid out the plan the Mississippi Public Service Commission had approved — a geographic split of 601, with the new 662 switching on at 12:01 a.m. Central on Monday, April 19, 1999.
The attached map put the dividing line across the state’s midsection, well north of Jackson. Greenwood, Kosciusko, Louisville, and Macon landed on the 662 side — the line even dipped south to take Yazoo City — while Canton, Carthage, and Philadelphia stayed behind. Greenville joined the new code while Vicksburg, downriver, did not. Everything above the line — Southaven on the Tennessee state line, Holly Springs, Corinth, New Albany, Tupelo, Oxford, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Grenada, Indianola, West Point, Amory, Columbus — has dialed as 662 ever since. Jackson and the rest stayed with 601, the parent code that today numbers the capital and southern Mississippi.
Carriers got a head start: a test number, 662-327-8461, went live February 28, 1999 so networks could confirm routing before the cutover. And residents got an unusually long runway — PL-NANP-166 held the permissive period open until 12:01 a.m. on May 1, 2000, so for over a year a call into the north completed whether it was dialed 601 or 662. Only after that did misdialed calls hit an intercept recording, and the test number came down on June 1, 2000.
Why did 662 dial seven digits until 2021?
Because nothing forced the issue for twenty-two years. The 1999 split preserved seven-digit local dialing, and with prefixes to spare there was no overlay on the horizon to end it. What ended it was a suicide-prevention hotline: the FCC’s designation of 988 as the national crisis line meant every code that both allowed seven-digit dialing and had 988 working as a prefix had to convert. NANPA’s Planning Letter PL-556 of January 8, 2021 — superseding PL-544 — counted 82 such codes, and Mississippi’s lone entry was 662.
So the north converted on the national calendar: permissive ten-digit dialing from April 24, 2021, mandatory from October 24, 2021, carrier enforcement wrapped by July 15, 2022, and 988 live everywhere the next day. Neither neighbor moved. The 601 side had dialed ten digits since its 769 overlay arrived March 14, 2005, and coastal 228 — absent from the PL-556 list — keeps seven-digit dialing to this day.
An overlay that waits its turn
The conversion turned out to be rehearsal. On June 13, 2024, in Docket No. 2023-AD-0149, the Mississippi Public Service Commission approved an all-services distributed overlay for the 662 region, and NANPA published the schedule in Planning Letter PL-627 that August 19. Network preparation and customer education began April 30, 2025; carriers could order 471 prefixes from November 25, 2025; and the new code entered service January 30, 2026, verified beforehand by a test number at 471-471-0471.
PL-627 attaches a condition to the new code: central office codes in 471 become assignable only when every assignable prefix in 662 has been handed out. The state’s January 2026 announcement put it plainly — customers may receive a 471 number for new service, but only after 662 is exhausted. No existing number changes, local calls stay local, and because the region had already dialed ten digits since 2021, the overlay changed nothing about how a call is placed. That sequencing — dialing conversion first, second code later — is now the standard playbook, and our area code guide explains why relief means an overlay instead of another split.
The forecast that fell off the chart
NANPA’s exhaust studies trace the whole arc. Both 2024 editions had 662 exhausting in the third quarter of 2026; the October 2025 study bought a year, to Q3 2027. Then the overlay landed, and the April 2026 NPA Exhaust Analysis lists the 471/662 complex as “100+” — its notation for a pool whose projected exhaust sits more than a century out, too far to state a quarter. When NANPA amended the study on July 6, 2026, every change was a Texas complex; Mississippi’s line did not move. The NPA database lists 662 with a blank jeopardy field and nothing on the relief side.
The rest of the state enjoys the same calm on smaller scales. The 601/769 complex gained twenty quarters in the same study, now projected into the third quarter of 2052, while 228 — still a lone, seven-digit code — carries a Q3 2105 date. Mississippi’s five codes — two of them overlays — want for nothing.
Working the 662 footprint by phone
The territory is really three markets wearing one code. DeSoto County — Southaven, Horn Lake, Olive Branch — is commuter Memphis, and callers there also recognize the 901 across the state line. Oxford and Starkville are college towns that empty and refill on the academic calendar, with Tupelo — Elvis Presley’s hometown — anchoring the hill country’s commerce. And the Delta runs on agriculture, equipment, and credit, industries that still transact by phone.
In all three, a northern-Mississippi number on the display outperforms an anonymous out-of-state one — the answer-rate math is in our local-presence dialing guide. With 471 held in reserve, prefix inventory still comes out of the original 662 ranges people have read for twenty-five years. A display is not evidence, though: caller ID spoofing puts fake local numbers on real scam calls, which is why verifiable signing at the carrier matters more than the area code itself.
That carrier layer is SIPNEX’s business. We hold our own FCC authorization — direct, not resold — and provision local DID numbers wherever the rate-center map calls for them, in northern Mississippi and every other US market. Calls ride SIP trunking into your PBX or dialer, outbound legs are signed at the A level under our own STIR/SHAKEN certificate, and toll-free service runs on our own RespOrg registration.
662 area code FAQs
Which Mississippi cities and towns use the 662 area code?
The northern half of the state: Southaven, Horn Lake, and Olive Branch in the Memphis suburbs; Tupelo, Oxford, Starkville, Columbus, Corinth, and New Albany across the hill country; and Clarksdale, Cleveland, Greenville, Greenwood, Indianola, and Grenada in the Delta. NANPA’s split map also placed Holly Springs, Senatobia, Batesville, West Point, Amory, Kosciusko, Louisville, and Macon on the 662 side. All of it keeps Central Time and, since January 2026, shares its territory with the 471 overlay.
Is 471 a different place than the 662 area code?
No — 471 covers exactly the same northern Mississippi territory as 662. It is an all-services overlay approved by the Mississippi Public Service Commission in Docket No. 2023-AD-0149 and in service since January 30, 2026 under NANPA Planning Letter PL-627. Under that letter, 471 prefixes are assigned only once every assignable 662 prefix is taken, so a 471 number is simply the region’s newer vintage — same towns, same rates, same ten-digit dialing.
When did the 662 area code split from 601?
April 19, 1999, at 12:01 a.m. Central, under Planning Letter PL-NANP-166. NANPA had assigned the code on September 18, 1998, and the split gave northern Mississippi its own numbering while 601 kept Jackson and the south. A permissive period let either code complete northern calls until May 1, 2000 — over a year of grace, backed by a routing test number at 662-327-8461.
Are local calls in the 662 area code seven or ten digits?
Ten digits, mandatory since October 24, 2021. 662 was Mississippi’s only code on the 82-code list in NANPA’s PL-556, which converted every area code still dialing seven digits with a 988 prefix in use ahead of the crisis line’s launch. Toll calls are dialed 1 plus ten digits. The 2026 arrival of the 471 overlay changed nothing further — the dialing plan was already overlay-ready.
Has the 662 area code run out of numbers?
The original pool came close — forecasts in 2024 put exhaust at Q3 2026 — but the 471 overlay ended the countdown. NANPA’s April 2026 exhaust study lists the combined 471/662 supply as “100+”, meaning projected exhaust sits more than a century out, and the code carries no jeopardy status. New 471 assignments begin only after the last assignable 662 prefix goes, so local numbers across northern Mississippi stay orderable indefinitely.
From a DeSoto County storefront to a Delta equipment yard, the right local number is a small edge that compounds on every dial. SIPNEX provisions 662-region DIDs under its own FCC license, delivers them over SIP trunking, and signs every outbound call at the A level — with rates published, a contact page that reaches an engineer, and a desk at (833) 665-2220.
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