Longer phone numbers extended across B.C.
Last Updated: Friday, April 25, 2008 | 12:37 PM PT
CBC News
Residents outside Metro Vancouver, beginning on June 23, will have to start getting used to including the local area code when they make local calls.
Metro Vancouver telephone customers have been required to dial the 604 area code on all local calls for several years.
Shawn Hall of Telus said 10-digit dialing was extended across the province because they are running out of 250 numbers.
Currently, the 778 area code is assigned to Metro Vancouver customers, but soon it will be allocated to users in the rest of the province as well.
"It's not uncommon now for people, in addition to having a home phone and an office phone, to have a cellphone, a BlackBerry, a pager, a wireless aircard. Those devices add up by putting more pressure on the finite supply of phone numbers available in an area code that the area code can supply," said Hall.
For the summer, 250 area code phone customers will still be able to use seven-digit dialing, but they'll receive a gentle reminder to dial the 10 digits.
That will change in early September, when only 10-digit calls will be connected.
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