CallataGuidesGet a local business phone number in Boston, MA
Boston's area codes, prefixes and carriers from NANPA records, and how to put a Boston number in front of your customers.
- Area code
- 617 / 857
- Exchanges
- 426NANPA-assigned
- Carriers
- 40
- Population
- 673,458Census 2024 est.
What area code is Boston, MA?
Boston city is a Census place in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, with an estimated 673,458 residents in 2024. NANPA lists 426 exchanges for its rate center across 2 area codes; 617 has the most (274, 64%). 617 is part of an overlay with 857, so a new local number in Boston may carry any of those codes depending on which have numbers available. Boston is in the Eastern time zone.
According to NANPA's dialing-plan data, local calls within 617 are dialed as ten digits (area code plus number) and toll calls as 1 plus ten digits.
Who holds Boston phone exchanges
40 carriers hold the 426 exchanges assigned to Boston's rate center. Verizon New England INC. has the most, with 136. 258 of them are pooled codes, which the holder shares with other carriers in blocks of 1,000 numbers. A business number in Boston can come from any of these blocks; once it is yours, porting lets it move between providers.
| Carrier (NANPA operating company) | Exchanges | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Verizon New England INC. | 136 | 32% |
| Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless - Ma | 75 | 18% |
| Omnipoint Miami E License, LLC | 36 | 8.5% |
| New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC - DC | 31 | 7.3% |
| Metropcs, INC. | 31 | 7.3% |
| TC Systems, INC. | 23 | 5.4% |
| Paetec Itel, LLC | 17 | 4.0% |
| Mcimetro Access Transmission Services LLC | 15 | 3.5% |
| Level 3 Communications, LLC - Ma | 14 | 3.3% |
| Onvoy, LLC - Ma | 7 | 1.6% |
| Bandwidth.com CLEC, LLC - Ma | 4 | 0.94% |
| Centurylink Communications, LLC | 3 | 0.70% |
Carrier names are the operating company (OCN) names on NANPA's utilized central office code file dated 10/01/2026. A carrier holding a code may port numbers to other carriers.
Local prefixes for Boston
A prefix (NXX) is the three digits after the area code. Numbers starting with these prefixes are rated as local to Boston. The earliest assignment date recorded in the file for these codes is 2001. 21 of the 426 were assigned in 2020 or later.
| Area code | Prefixes (NXX) |
|---|---|
| 617 | 204, 205, 210, 212, 217, 222, 223, 224, 226, 227, 228, 235, 236, 239, 246, 247, 248, 255, 259, 261, 262, 263, 266, 267, 275, 279, 283, 289, 292, 293, 295, 303, 304, 305, 306, 309, 310, 312, 314, 316, 320, 330, 331, 338, 341, 342, 343, 345, 346, 348, 350, 351, 352, 353, 356, 357, 358, 366, 367, 368, 369, 371, 372, 373, 375, 377, 378, 385, 391, 392, 399, 406, 407, 412, 413, 414, 416, 419, 421, 422, 423, 424, 425, 426, 428, 429, 434, 437, 438, 439, 443, 447, 448, 449, 450, 451, 456, 457, 459, 470, 476, 478, 480, 482, 488, 490, 502, 504, 507, 510, 512, 513, 515, 517, 519, 521, 523, 526, 530, 531, 532, 534, 535, 536, 542, 543, 549, 556, 557, 563, 565, 570, 571, 572, 573, 574, 578, 579, 585, 587, 589, 590, 592, 593, 594, 595, 598, 603, 617, 619, 620, 624, 626, 635, 636, 638, 643, 645, 646, 648, 650, 654, 655, 662, 664, 670, 671, 672, 680, 683, 686, 692, 694, 695, 697, 699, 717, 719, 720, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726, 727, 728, 733, 737, 742, 743, 747, 748, 753, 755, 756, 757, 760, 763, 772, 777, 778, 780, 784, 785, 788, 790, 794, 799, 807, 816, 818, 820, 823, 824, 828, 830, 832, 834, 835, 838, 839, 840, 848, 849, 850, 851, 854, 856, 859, 861, 865, 867, 869, 872, 875, 877, 878, 880, 885 |
First 240 of 426 prefixes. Source: NANPA.
When Boston's exchanges were assigned
Assignment dates show when each block of Boston numbers was added to the local supply.
| Decade assigned | Exchanges | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 71 | 39% |
| 2010s | 88 | 49% |
| 2020s | 21 | 12% |
Assignment dates as recorded in NANPA's utilized code file; codes without a recorded date are excluded.
What makes a number local to Boston
NANPA ties every exchange to a rate center. For Boston that is BOSTON, so a number from one of these exchanges reads as local to people in and around Boston.
If your business already has a Boston number, porting it to Callata is free and keeps it on your cards, listings and vehicles.
Businesses around Boston
Boston is part of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, home to 5.0 million people in 2024. County Business Patterns counted 133,807 business establishments in the Boston, MA-NH metro area in 2023, employing 2,681,704 people. The largest sectors by establishment count are professional, scientific, and technical services (17,803), retail trade (15,568), and health care and social assistance (15,127).
| Industry | Establishments | Employees | Employees per establishment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-service restaurants | 4,652 | 104,689 | 22.5 |
| Limited-service restaurants | 3,920 | 51,825 | 13.2 |
| Residential remodelers | 3,263 | 11,112 | 3.4 |
| Law offices | 2,967 | 24,707 | 8.3 |
| Landscaping services | 2,876 | 12,494 | 4.3 |
| Dental offices | 2,419 | 19,313 | 8.0 |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 2,169 | 22,860 | 10.5 |
| Beauty salons | 2,025 | 10,995 | 5.4 |
Selected small-business industries (six-digit NAICS) covered by these guides. Source: Census County Business Patterns 2023.
A Boston number on Callata
For $99 a month, Callata puts a team of up to 5 on one plan ($20 for each person after that): up to 3 local numbers, unlimited inbound calls, a pooled allowance of 1,500 outbound US and Canada minutes per user, browser and cell calling, voicemail transcription with urgency triage, recorded calls with AI summaries and business-hours routing, with E911 on every number.
If you already have a number in Boston, 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.
A 20-person team is the benchmark here, the rounded average establishment size in the Boston, MA-NH metro area. Billed per seat at month-to-month list prices (checked September 28, 2026), RingCentral RingEX Core costs $600.00 a month and Ooma Office Pro $499.00. On Callata the same 20 people cost $399.00 a month, less than either per-seat plan.
| Provider (plan) | Pricing basis | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Callata (Callata Office) | $99 incl. 5 users, $20 per extra user | $399.00 | $4,788.00 |
| Quo (Starter) | $19.00 per user | $380.00 | $4,560.00 |
| Nextiva (Core) | $23.00 per user | $460.00 | $5,520.00 |
| Ooma (Office Pro) | $24.95 per user | $499.00 | $5,988.00 |
| Dialpad (Standard) | $27.00 per user | $540.00 | $6,480.00 |
| RingCentral (RingEX Core) | $30.00 per user | $600.00 | $7,200.00 |
Competitor prices are each vendor's published month-to-month list price per user for its lowest plan that includes business calling and texting, checked September 28, 2026: Quo Starter $19, Nextiva Core $23, Ooma Office Pro $24.95 (Essentials excludes texting; one-time $29.95 activation not included), Dialpad Standard $27, RingCentral RingEX Core $30 ($20 billed annually). Prices exclude taxes and fees and may change; annual contracts lower some competitors' prices.
Frequently asked questions
What area code is Boston, MA?
Boston has exchanges in 617 and 857; 617 has the most.
How many phone companies have exchanges in Boston?
40, holding 426 exchanges between them, according to NANPA's 10/01/2026 file.
Can I keep my existing Boston business number?
Yes. Porting an existing number to Callata is free. Texting from it starts after carrier registration (10DLC), a one-time $49 fee.
How much is a business phone line in Boston?
Callata is $99 a month with 5 users included, then $20 per additional user, with up to 3 local numbers; 20 users come to $399.00 a month. For comparison, 20 users on RingCentral RingEX Core list at $600.00 a month (checked September 28, 2026).