EAST TENNESSEE AREA CODE 865

On October 1, 1999, east Tennessee area code 423 was split and new area code 865 was assigned to Knoxville. Typically, when an area code is split, the largest city in an existing numbering plan area keeps the original code – in this case, Knoxville. However, the Tennessee Regulatory requested that the code 865 be assigned to Knoxville because on a standard telephone keypad, the numbers 865 correspond to the letters VOL, the commonly used short version of Volunteers, which is the formal nickname of the sports teams at the University of Tennessee.