El Pasoans Will Soon Have to Dial All 10 Digits For Local Calls It was only a matter of time, but El Paso is soon going to have to do something that a large portion of the United States already does. Dial the local area code before making a phone call. The reason isn't what you might think however. My first thought was it was like in an episode of the Simpsons from season 12. Springfield gets split into two factions because a new area code was necessary because the town ran out of numbers. More on that in a moment, because it's hilarious.