More than 18 months after it officially went into service, it’s unclear how many phone numbers have actually been assigned in the new 447 area code in Central Illinois.
The Illinois Commerce Commission approved 447 as an “overlay” in the 217 area code, because the pool of available numbers in 217 was becoming depleted.
The ICC has released blocks of thousands of numbers to various phone service providers allowing them to issue numbers in 447, but it currently has no data on how many of those new numbers have been put into use so far.
