Area code 559

Area code 559 is a California telephone area code that was split from area code 209 on November 14, 1998. It covers Central California, serving the counties of Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare—an area largely coextensive with the Fresno and Visalia-Porterville metropolitan areas.

Service

The 559 area code serves the Central California counties of Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare. The major cities within the 559 area code region are Fresno, Coalinga, Clovis, Madera, Sanger, Reedley, Dinuba, Selma, Tulare, Visalia, Hanford, Lemoore, Porterville, Avenal, and Kingsburg, Caruthers

Cities in the 559 area code

History

Like many other regions that had experienced area code changes during the area code boom of the 1990s, both 559 and 209 were in the early planning stages of relief, potentially creating the need for introduction of further new area codes. Yet by 2002, number blocking was being enforced in the 209 and 559 area codes. Instead of handing out numbers in blocks of 10,000 to private companies (as had been normal practice since the beginning of the NANP in 1947), only 1,000 numbers would be handed out at a time. For example, instead of granting Pacific Bell all numbers (559) 330-xxxx, only numbers (559) 330-0xxx, or (559) 330-1xxx or (559) 330-2xxx, and so on, would be granted.