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 in the 403 area until September 2009 and in the 780 area until November 2011.
Ten-digit dialing will begin in those codes on June 23, 2008 and become mandatory by September 12, 2008. On that date, a new area code, 587, will be introduced for subscribers in both area codes. That means someone seeking a new number in the 403 and 780 area codes could be given one with 587.
The introduction of 10-digit dialing in Alberta will coincide with that already announced for British Columbia. This “will permit the use of common consumer awareness and network implementation plans, which will result in more efficient use of resources and less customer confusion,” the CRTC decision said.
