Get a local business phone number in Houma, LA

Area codes in Houma

Houma city is a Census place in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, with an estimated 31,671 residents in 2024. All 53 exchanges NANPA lists for its rate center are in area code 985. Houma is in the Central time zone.

According to NANPA's dialing-plan data, local calls within 985 are dialed as seven digits and toll calls as 1 plus ten digits.

Phone carriers in Houma

16 carriers hold the 53 exchanges assigned to Houma's rate center. Bellsouth Telecomm INC d/b/a South Central Bell Tel has the most, with 13. 32 of them are pooled codes, which the holder shares with other carriers in blocks of 1,000 numbers. A business number in Houma can come from any of these blocks; once it is yours, porting lets it move between providers.

Exchanges (NPA-NXX) assigned in Houma

A prefix (NXX) is the three digits after the area code. Numbers starting with these prefixes are rated as local to Houma. The earliest assignment date recorded in the file for these codes is 2001. 4 of the 53 were assigned in 2020 or later.

When Houma's exchanges were assigned

Assignment dates show when each block of Houma numbers was added to the local supply.

How local numbers work in Houma

What a caller sees as "local" is the area code plus prefix. In Houma, those come from the HOUMA rate center, as recorded by NANPA.

Keeping an existing Houma number costs nothing on Callata, because porting is free; a new number depends on what carriers have open in 985 when you pick it.

The local business market

Houma is part of the Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA metro area, home to 199,000 people in 2024. County Business Patterns counted 4,283 business establishments in the Houma, LA metro area in 2023, employing 70,193 people. The largest sectors by establishment count are retail trade (705), health care and social assistance (461), and professional, scientific, and technical services (397).

Business phone service in Houma

Callata Office costs $99 per month for up to 5 people, and each additional user is $20 a month. That covers up to 3 local numbers, calling from a browser or your cell, transcribed voicemail, recorded calls with AI summaries, after-hours routing and E911 on each number.

If you already have a number in Houma, porting it to Callata is free. Texting from a local number requires a one-time carrier registration (10DLC, $49), and the numbers available in any area code depend on carrier inventory when you choose them.

Optional AI agents (receptionist, sales, support or scheduler) can answer calls after hours or when nobody picks up, take messages, text, email and transfer to your team. They are billed from prepaid AI minutes at $0.25 per minute, identify themselves as AI, and may only place outbound calls to people who consented, between 8am and 9pm.

The comparison below uses 16 users, the rounded average establishment size in the Houma, LA metro area. At list prices checked September 28, 2026, that is $399.20 a month on Ooma Office Pro and $480.00 on RingCentral RingEX Core. On Callata the same 16 people cost $319.00 a month, less than either per-seat plan.