Philadelphia
Area codes 215, 267, 445.
Business VoIP in Philadelphia
Business phones by state
Business VoIP in Pennsylvania
Philadelphia carries three area codes on the same streets and Pittsburgh carries two. That is worth understanding before you choose a business number here, because it tells you what a code still signals and what it quietly stopped signalling years ago.
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.
Three codes, one city
Philadelphia is served by 215, with 267 and 445 issued over the same ground. Pittsburgh is served by 412, with 878 alongside it. Those are not different neighbourhoods. When numbers ran short, the extra codes were laid on top of the existing territory rather than splitting it, which is why two businesses on the same block can have numbers that look nothing alike.
The consequence is worth sitting with. In Pennsylvania's two big cities, an area code no longer tells anybody where you are within the city. It tells them roughly when the line was issued. A 215 has been on Philadelphia signage for a very long time and a 412 the same in Pittsburgh, so those two read as rooted. The newer codes read as new. That is the entire signal, and it is smaller than the people arguing about it think.
Outside those two metros the code depends on where the line is. Read it off your own invoice. We are not going to guess at codes we cannot verify.
So which number do you advertise
This is the only part of choosing a phone system where Pennsylvania changes the answer at all, so it is worth being concrete about it.
| If this is you | Advertise | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One location, customers within an hour | The local number you already have | It is on your signage already and keeping it costs nothing |
| Sites at both ends of the state | Both local numbers, one greeting behind them | Each market sees a code it recognises |
| Selling statewide with no shopfront | One local number, for where you actually are | A code you cannot back up with service is a promise |
| Selling well beyond the state | A toll-free number | It belongs to no town, which is the point |
| Brand new, no history to protect | Whatever code is available | Nobody is waiting for an older code to come back in stock |
More on both halves of that: business phone numbers for the local case, and toll-free numbers for the other one.
Two cities and a long middle
Pennsylvania is a state with two anchors and several hours of country between them, and the businesses in that middle are not a smaller version of either end. The east leans toward professional services, medicine and finance. The west has a long manufacturing memory and a lot of firms that still sell to other firms. Between them sit agriculture, warehousing and distribution strung along the interstates, and a scattering of college towns.
A business that genuinely serves both ends is two businesses on the phone. The practical answer is one system with two local numbers pointing into it, and an auto attendant that knows which one was dialled and greets accordingly. Internally it stays one set of extensions, so a Pittsburgh call can be handed to somebody in Philadelphia without the customer being told to hang up and dial again.
What does not change, including at the state line
Almost everything. A VoIP phone system is not a different product in Pennsylvania than it is in Nevada. Same features, same apps, same porting paperwork, and no provider anywhere builds a regional edition. The area codes above are genuinely local information. The service is not, and we would rather say so than pad this page out with scenery. The full explanation lives on the business VoIP guide.
One thing does turn on geography, and it is the serious one. Pennsylvania borders a lot of states, and plenty of businesses here have staff who work on both sides of a line. A VoIP number travels with the device, so the address on the account is the address an emergency dispatcher will be given. If handsets move between sites, or somebody takes one home over a border, keeping that record correct is a safety task rather than a setup step.
Who should not switch
There is a real no attached to this, and the one that is particular to Pennsylvania is about the buildings.
- The building fights your wifi. Masonry, steel and long production floors defeat a router that was fine in an office. A desk phone on a network cable avoids the whole category, and if the connection itself stutters at the busy hour, fix that before you order anything.
The rest of the no has nothing to do with Pennsylvania and we will not rewrite it here. Fax traffic, a landline contract with months to run, the emergency address on the account and the alarm panel or elevator phone sharing that pair are laid out on the main VoIP guide.
Pennsylvania 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.
Pittsburgh
Area codes 412, 878.
Business VoIP in Pittsburgh
Common questions
Pennsylvania business phone questions
Is a 215 number better than a newer Philadelphia code?
Slightly, and only to people old enough to remember when it was the only one. All the Philadelphia codes cover the same ground, so none of them tells a caller anything about where in the city you sit. If an older code is offered, take it. If it is not, take what is available and spend the energy on the greeting instead, which every caller hears and nobody scrolls past.
We have offices at both ends of the state. Do we need two phone systems?
No. One system, two local numbers, and a greeting that knows which number was dialled. Each market sees a code it recognises, and internally it is one set of extensions, so a call can move between the two sites without anybody being told to hang up and try a different number. That last part is what customers actually notice.
Some of our people work across a nearby state line. Does that matter?
For one thing, seriously. A VoIP number travels with the device, so the address held on the account is the address an emergency dispatcher gets. If handsets move between sites, or somebody takes one home over a border, that record has to be kept correct. Treat it as a safety task with a name against it rather than a box ticked once during setup.
Related guides
Business VoIP
The whole product explained once, including what it asks of your connection.
Read the VoIP guideAuto attendant
The greeting and the extensions behind it, which is where the work happens.
Greetings and extensionsVoIP vs Landline
An even-handed comparison, copper against data.
Compare the twoCoverage
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 Pennsylvania 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 system, however many numbers you need
Go through the plans yourself, or tell us where your customers are and which numbers they already dial. If the answer is to change nothing, we will tell you that too.