A proposal for a new area code in western Kentucky is back before the Kentucky Public Service Commission. The region has nearly exhausted the 270 area code and is in line for an additional code. The PSC is considering a request to make the next area code available to all new phone customers throughout the region, rather than to apply it geographically. That would mean people would have to dial the area code to reach even their closest neighbors who get the proposed new number.

The addition of a new area code has been delayed five times since 2006. The previous plan would have divided the area codes geographically. Kentucky's westernmost communities, including Henderson, Hopkinsville, Madisonville, Murray and Paducah, would have gotten the 364 area code. The cities of Bowling Green, Columbia, Glasgow, Elizabethtown and Owensboro would have remained 270.