Kansas City
Area codes 816, 975.
Business VoIP in Kansas City
Business VoIP by state
Business VoIP in Missouri
Missouri asks a question most states do not. Kansas City is served by 816, with 975 laid over the same ground, and St Louis by 314 with 557 alongside it, and the two cities are a long drive and two separate customer bases apart. One phone number cannot look local in both. That is the decision this page is about, because everything else about a phone system is the same here as anywhere.
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Two markets that happen to share a state
Plenty of states have a big city and a smaller one. Missouri has two anchors at opposite ends, each with its own customers, its own competitors and its own idea of what counts as nearby. A business that sells in both is not covering one region, it is working two, and the phone number is the first place that shows.
The practical consequence is small and stubborn: a code from the far end of the state does not read as local, it reads as somewhere else. Put a St Louis number on work sold in Kansas City and you have quietly told that customer you are not their neighbor, which in a trade where people ask around is the wrong opening line.
There are three honest ways to deal with it, and the right one depends entirely on where your work actually comes from.
Three ways to answer a two-market state
None of these is clever. One of them is right for you and the other two are not.
| Approach | What the caller reads | What it asks of you | When it is right |
|---|---|---|---|
| One local number | A code from the city you are genuinely in | Nothing at all, it is the default | Nearly all the work sits in one metro |
| A number in each metro | A familiar code at either end of the state | Two numbers to publish, and a routing decision for each | You really do sell in both, with people or vehicles in each |
| A toll-free front door | No location at all, which cuts both ways | Giving up the local signal on purpose | Buyers are out of state, or comparing several vendors |
The middle row is the one people do not realize is available. Several numbers can point into a single system, each with its own greeting if you want one, all landing on the same extensions and the same voicemail. What toll-free does and does not signal is covered on toll-free numbers, and keeping a number you already own is on business phone numbers.
What is identical in both cities, and in every other state
The product. A VoIP phone system in Missouri is the same system sold in Minnesota or Oregon: the same software, the same apps and handsets, the same porting rules, the same behavior when the power goes out. There is no Missouri edition, and a page that hints at one is putting a state name on something national.
So the genuinely local questions are the short list: which code reads as home, whether your market wants local or toll-free, and whether the connection at each of your buildings can carry a call. Everything else sits on the main business VoIP guide, and the comparison with a copper line is on VoIP versus landline.
Between and beyond the two metros
Most of Missouri is neither city. Smaller towns, highway corridors, farm country and tourism, and businesses whose customers have never once thought about which metro they are closer to. If that is you, the two-market problem is not your problem, and the answer is the boring one: take a number in the code your own customers already dial, which is printed on the bill in your drawer rather than on a web page.
The part that does matter outside the metros is who picks up. A two-person operation with both people out on jobs loses calls in a way that no area code can fix. A greeting that offers a choice, a call that tries one phone then another then a mobile, and voicemail arriving by email, is the whole of the fix. The auto attendant covers the recorded greeting, and answering from anywhere covers the apps, the laptops and the handsets.
Who should not switch
Some businesses should read all of the above and stay exactly where they are.
- The general reasons to stay put, fax traffic, an unsteady connection, a live contract, the emergency address record and whatever else is wired to that copper, are covered in full on the main VoIP guide.
- A second metro number is not a second location. If you cannot put a person at the other end of the state, a Kansas City code on St Louis work only buys calls you have to turn down.
Missouri cities with their own page
Same product, different local facts: which code covers which part of town, when the phone actually rings, and which trades ring it.
St. Louis
Area codes 314, 557.
Business VoIP in St. Louis
Common questions
Missouri VoIP questions
Can one phone system have both a Kansas City and a St Louis number?
Yes, and it is the ordinary way to handle a business that works both ends of the state. Several numbers can point into one system, each with its own greeting or its own ringing order, or both landing in the same place. Nothing behind the scenes is duplicated, and there is still one set of extensions and one voicemail to check.
Which number should go on the van if we work both sides of the state?
The one for the market that van is in. If vehicles and crews cross the state, that is the strongest argument for a toll-free number as the published one, with local numbers kept for the advertising that runs in each metro. Printing a number from the other end of the state on everything is the option that helps nobody.
If our office moves, do we keep the number?
Yes. A VoIP number lives on the account rather than at an address, so a move across town or across the state changes nothing about the number, the greeting or the extensions. The one record that must be kept current is the service address on the account, because that is what emergency dispatch is given.
Related guides
Three more pieces of the same decision.
Business phone numbers
Local, toll-free, and moving a number you already own.
About numbersToll-free numbers
What toll-free is worth once nobody is paying by the minute.
Read about toll-freeAnswering from anywhere
How one number reaches several people in different places.
How that worksCoverage
A VoIP line runs over the internet, so there is no network to be at the edge of and no corner of the country where the service gets thin. That is why this map has no holes in it. The shading is not signal strength, it is how much has been written down, and Missouri is one of the darker ones because it has city pages of its own.
- States with city pages
- States with a guide of their own
- The state you are reading about
Every state is linked. Business VoIP by state and city lists all fifty of them, and the 80 cities with a page, as ordinary links.
One state, two markets, one system
Look at the plans yourself, or tell us where your calls come from and we will tell you whether you need one number or two.