Get a local business phone number in Paterson, NJ

What area code is Paterson, NJ?

Paterson city is a Census place in Passaic County, New Jersey, with an estimated 160,463 residents in 2024. NANPA lists 64 exchanges for its rate center across 2 area codes; 973 has the most (40, 63%). 973 is part of an overlay with 862, so a new local number in Paterson may carry any of those codes depending on which have numbers available. Paterson is in the Eastern time zone.

According to NANPA's dialing-plan data, local calls within 973 are dialed as ten digits (area code plus number) and toll calls as ten digits (area code plus number).

Paterson exchanges by carrier

16 carriers hold the 64 exchanges assigned to Paterson's rate center. Verizon New Jersey, INC. has the most, with 22. 41 of them are pooled codes, which the holder shares with other carriers in blocks of 1,000 numbers. Holding a code means NANPA assigned that block of numbers to the carrier for this rate center; individual numbers may since have been ported elsewhere.

Paterson phone prefixes

Each prefix below is a block of up to 10,000 numbers that NANPA assigned to Paterson's rate center (PATERSON). The earliest assignment date recorded in the file for these codes is 2001. 13 of the 64 were assigned in 2020 or later.

When Paterson's exchanges were assigned

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

What makes a number local to Paterson

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

New local numbers are drawn from carrier inventory, so the exact 973 numbers available change over time; porting an existing number is free.

Businesses around Paterson

Paterson is part of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area, home to 19.9 million people in 2024. County Business Patterns counted 562,802 business establishments in the New York, NY-NJ metro area in 2023, employing 8,559,248 people. The largest sectors by establishment count are professional, scientific, and technical services (71,000), retail trade (70,682), and health care and social assistance (65,817).

Business phone service in Paterson

Callata is a business phone system priced at $99 a month with 5 users included, then $20 per additional user. Callata Office includes up to 3 local business numbers, unlimited inbound calling, 1,500 pooled outbound US and Canada minutes per user each month, a browser softphone that can also ring your cell, voicemail with transcription, call recording with AI summaries, business-hours routing and E911 on every number.

If you already have a number in Paterson, 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.

Per-seat phone plans multiply by headcount. For the rounded average establishment size in the New York, NY-NJ metro area, 15 users on RingCentral RingEX Core come to $450.00 a month and on Ooma Office Pro $374.25, at month-to-month list prices checked September 28, 2026. On Callata the same 15 people cost $299.00 a month, less than either per-seat plan.