The number and the new code
What an overlay actually does, why nobody gets renumbered, and what porting a number involves.
Read about business numbers
Fort Collins, CO
Business VoIP in Fort Collins, CO
970 covers northern and western Colorado, and in July 2025 a second code was activated over the same ground. The unusual part is that you almost certainly cannot get one of the new numbers yet, and knowing why saves you from a conversation with a provider that would otherwise be confusing.
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A second code that exists but is not being handed out
970 was created in 1995 and covers everything in Colorado outside the Front Range corridor and the Springs: the northern plains, the mountains and the western slope. On 7 July 2025 a second code, 748, was activated over exactly the same territory.
Ordinarily that would be the whole story. Here there is a wrinkle, and it is worth knowing before you ring a provider. The relief arrangement holds that no new exchange codes are to be issued in 748 until 970 is genuinely exhausted, so the second code is live in the sense that it exists and is switched on, and effectively dormant in the sense that numbers in it are not being handed out yet.
So if a salesperson offers you a 748 number today, ask them to confirm it rather than assuming, and if they cannot, that is worth knowing about them. And if you are told your area is getting a new code and your number will change, that is wrong in the way that matters: an overlay never renumbers anybody. 970 keeps reaching everything it reaches.
The part that does affect you already is dialling. With a second code assigned to the territory, ten digits are the safe assumption for local calls and anything of yours printed with seven should be brought up to ten at its next natural replacement. That costs nothing if you do it as things wear out and quite a lot if you do it in a hurry.
A code that spans two very different price expectations
970 is unusual in what it contains. The same code covers this city and the northern plains, and it also covers the mountain resort towns to the west. Those places have almost nothing in common commercially, and a customer's expectations about what things cost move a great deal between them.
Nobody in Colorado is confused about the geography, but a caller who does not live here may well be, and so may a supplier quoting you. It cuts both ways: quoting into the mountains from here you may be assumed to be cheaper than a resort town firm, which usually helps, and a visitor ringing from a resort may assume you charge like one, which does not.
The fix is the plain one and it is not a feature. Say where you are and how far you travel, in the greeting and on the page somebody reads before dialling. Three digits covering a third of a state cannot do that work and were never going to.
None of which makes the service local
There is no Colorado phone product. The software is the same one a business in Georgia is sold, it runs a long way from here, and the only thing your address decides is the three digits at the front of the number.
How it works and what it asks of your connection are on the main business VoIP guide. The Front Range, which runs on its own stacked codes, is on business VoIP in Colorado. Keeping a number you already have printed is on business phone numbers.
Who gains here
The working economy here runs on technology and engineering, brewing and food production, agriculture on the plains east of the city, higher education and research, and the construction and trades keeping up with a long run of growth.
For the technical and manufacturing side the useful setup is the usual short list: a direct number per person because callers want one named individual, a greeting short enough to be a courtesy, and a named colleague rather than a mailbox when that person is unavailable. Virtual phone system and auto attendant and extensions cover both.
For anybody whose work takes them west into the mountains there is a practical caution that has nothing to do with the phone system and everything to do with where you are standing. Coverage and connections vary sharply once you leave the corridor, so if your people take calls from sites out there, decide in advance what happens to a call that cannot reach them rather than discovering it on a job.
Who should not bother: one person, one phone, customers who already reach you. That is a monthly cost against a problem you do not have. And if the connection into your building is unreliable, deal with that first, because voice is less forgiving than anything else you run over a line. VoIP vs landline is the honest case for keeping copper.
The decisions behind the number
None of these are about Fort Collins. The first is worth reading before a provider tells you something about the new code.
Reaching one named person
Direct numbers and extensions, including for somebody working out west of the corridor.
Read about virtual systemsThe greeting in front
Menus and extensions, and saying where you are and how far you travel.
Read about auto attendantWhether to switch at all
The honest case for keeping a copper line, which still applies to some buildings and connections.
Read VoIP vs landline
Common questions
Fort Collins VoIP questions
A second area code was activated in 2025. Can we get a number in it?
Almost certainly not yet. The relief arrangement holds that no new exchange codes are issued in 748 until 970 is genuinely exhausted, so the code exists and is switched on while numbers in it are not being handed out. If a provider offers you one, ask them to confirm it before you plan anything around it.
Will our 970 number change?
No. An overlay adds a code to the same territory rather than splitting it, so nobody is renumbered and 970 keeps reaching everything it reaches now. Anyone telling you your number will change is describing a different kind of relief, and it is worth asking them which they mean.
Should we print ten digits now?
On anything new, yes. A ten digit number works perfectly today, so writing them on the next batch of cards, the next vehicle and the next form costs nothing, and it takes the job out of whatever week the change finally bites. There is no need to replace anything that is currently correct.
Get the code question answered properly
Tell us what a provider has told you about the new code and what your number needs to do. If the honest answer is that nothing changes for you yet, that is what we will say.