10-digit dialing to start in Alberta in 2008

OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Ten-digit telephone dialing will hit Alberta starting in June 2008. The CRTC has added Alberta’s two area codes, 403 and 780, to the growing list of regions requiring people to dial the area codes even when calling local numbers. The commission says the Canadian Numbering Administrator predicts that area code 403, serving Calgary and southern Alberta, will run out of telephone numbers by March 2009, while Edmonton and northern Alberta’s 780 code will exhaust its supply by October 2009. The booming province has exceeded previous forecasts for telephone demand—as recently as 2004, the numbers were expected to last...