Area codes 850 and 448 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan for the Florida Panhandle, including Pensacola, Tallahassee and Panama City. Area code 850 was created in 1997 in a split from 904, and area code 448 was assigned as a second code to the same area in an overlay plan in 2019, and mandatory ten-digit local calling began in May 2021. History When the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) was created by AT&T in 1947, the entire state of Florida was assigned the area code 305. In 1953, the western part of the peninsula from the Tampa Bay area southward received area code 813, and in 1965, North Florida from the Panhandle to Jacksonville was assigned area code 904 to mitigate the state's growth in population and telephone service. For thirty years, North Florida remained a single numbering plan area (NPA) until 1995, when the southern part of the territory was split off with area code 352. Continued demand put new pressure on the numbering resources, and within a year, further relief action was in the planning stage. The result was that the far western part of the panhandle (south of the Alabama state line) became a new numbering plan area with area code 850. Permissive dialing in the numbering plan area began June 23, 1997, and mandatory dialing commenced on March 23, 1998. Original plan Area code 850 was originally intended to be the relief code used in the 1995 split of the 904 area code. The Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Panama City and Pensacola LATAs, and the Florida portion of the Mobile, Alabama LATA were to retain 904 while the Daytona Beach and Gainesville LATAs changed to 850. This plan was scrapped in favor of a plan that moved only the Gainesville LATA to a new area code, this time 352 (FLA on the telephone keypad) and kept the Daytona Beach LATA in then-904 along with the rest of northern Florida. The reason for changing from 850 to 352 was a potential dialing conflict with the 407-850 office code and some rate centers in the Gainesville LATA with 7-digit local calling into the 407 area code. Political pressure from the tourism industry in Daytona Beach resulted in that area being kept in the then-904 area code. The Florida Public Service Commission had planned a three-way split of 904 to take place in 1997. The Jacksonville