473 Area Code – St. George's, Grenada: Location, Time Zone & History

On an alphanumeric telephone keypad, the digits 4-7-3 spell "GRE," the first three letters of Grenada, and that is no coincidence: the code was deliberately chosen when it was created on October 31, 1997, splitting Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique out of the shared Caribbean 809 numbering plan area and giving the island nation its own dedicated identity within the North American Numbering Plan. A permissive dialing period allowed continued use of 809 for a further year, until October 31, 1998.

Grenada is nicknamed the "Island of Spice" for its role as a major world producer of nutmeg and mace, an identity reflected in an economy built around spice agriculture alongside cocoa and banana cultivation, fishing, offshore banking and financial services, and tourism and hospitality. As of the 2011 national census, the country's population stood at 105,541, spread across communities including St. George's, Grenville, Gouyave, Sauteurs, Victoria, and Hillsborough on Carriacou.

The code's international reach has also made it a target for misuse: 473 has been associated with the "one ring" phone scam, in which robodialers place brief missed calls hoping recipients will call back and incur high per-minute international charges.