Jersey City
Served by 201, with 551 laid over the same ground. Both are local numbers for the same streets, and a business there can hold either.
Business phones by state
Business VoIP in New Jersey
In most of the country an area code is background noise. In New Jersey people read it. Towns sit close enough together that the first three digits are treated as a rough address, which makes the number a New Jersey business hands out a more loaded decision than it is almost anywhere else.
Disclosure: AldoMedia is a paid affiliate of Unitel Voice. If you sign up through a link on this page we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend what we would set up for our own clients, and we say plainly below who should not buy this.
A code here is read as a neighbourhood
Density changes what a phone number means. When a service area is twenty minutes wide rather than two hours, customers use the area code the way people elsewhere use a town name, and they notice when it does not match what a business claims.
That cuts both ways. An established local number is a genuine asset and should not be given up lightly. It also means the small mismatches matter: a company that says it covers your town, on a number nobody local recognises, has a credibility problem it probably does not know about.
Two cities, four codes, one explanation
These are examples rather than a list. New Jersey has more codes than these, and which one covers a given town depends on where you are standing.
Newark
Served by 973, with 862 doing the same job alongside it. Again, two codes and one city, not two different places.
That arrangement is called an overlay. When a long established code starts running short of numbers, a second one is laid on top of the same area instead of the map being cut up and half the businesses being renumbered. The practical result is that two numbers on the same street can begin differently, and that dialling all ten digits is simply how it works.
What an overlay means when you are buying a number
A new line may not carry the older code
If you order a new number in an overlay area, it may be issued on the newer code rather than the one you had in mind, because both serve the same ground. It does not say anything about your business, though a customer who has lived there a long time may take a second to place it. The greeting is where you settle that: say the town.
If customers already know a number, bring it
This is the reliable way to keep a code you care about. An existing number that is on your van, your invoices and thirty years of paperwork can normally be moved to a new provider, which is called porting. Business phone numbers goes through what that involves and when it is worth doing.
Do not read too much into anybody else's code
Numbers follow people now. The code on a customer's mobile tells you where they signed up years ago and not much about where they live today. Useful to remember before you start sorting enquiries by their first three digits.
A VoIP account has no idea what state it is in
Everything above is about which number to hold. None of it is about the service, because the service does not vary by state at all. The greeting, the extensions, the app on somebody's phone and the voicemail that arrives by email work the same way in Paterson as in Portland, and there is no New Jersey edition of any of it. Anybody advertising one has built a page rather than a product, and we would rather admit that on our own page than let you find it out.
What is local is the shape of the business around it. A service radius measured in minutes means callers expect an answer now rather than a call back tomorrow, and it means an extra ring group or a shared line is often worth more here than a longer feature list. The general explanation of how a phone system fits together is on our business VoIP guide, and the answering side is on virtual phone systems.
Who should not switch
Plenty of New Jersey businesses should leave the phones alone. The general reasons, fax work, a live contract, the emergency address record and whatever else is on that copper, are on our business VoIP guide. The one this state adds is about whose building you are in.
- You do not control the network. In a shared or serviced office, the wifi belongs to somebody else and so does the decision to reboot it at four in the afternoon. Voice needs a steady connection, and borrowed ones rarely are.
If the honest answer is that your connection or your building is the obstacle, that is the conversation to have first, and we will have it rather than sell around it.
New Jersey 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.
Jersey City
Area codes 201, 551.
Business VoIP in Jersey CityNewark
Area codes 973, 862.
Business VoIP in Newark
Common questions
New Jersey business phone questions
Why would a new Newark number arrive as 862 rather than 973?
Because 862 covers the same ground as 973. When an older code runs low on numbers, a second is laid over the same area rather than the map being redrawn, so a new line can be issued on either. It is not a sign the business is somewhere else. If the older code matters commercially, the reliable way to have it is to bring an existing number with you.
Can I keep my 201 number if I change providers?
Usually. Moving a number between providers is called porting and it is a routine request. Ask the new provider to confirm the number can be ported before you commit to anything, and do not cancel the old service yourself at any point. Cancelling releases the number, and once it is released you may not get it back.
Do I need a separate number for every town I cover?
No, and collecting numbers is a common waste of money. One well known number that is always answered beats four that ring in different places. If you genuinely trade as two businesses, a second one makes sense. Otherwise put the towns you cover on the website and in the greeting, where a customer will actually read them.
Where to read next
If you are weighing this against the line you already have, VoIP versus landline is the honest comparison. If the greeting is the part you care about, that is the auto attendant. If you sell well beyond the neighbourhood, toll-free numbers covers what those do and do not signal.
Coverage
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 New Jersey 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.
Keep the number your customers already dial
Look at the plans yourself, or tell us which number is on your paperwork and what happens when it rings. If bringing it across is the whole job, we will say so.