Area code 604

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Area code 604 serves the coloured areas, as well as D'Arcy and McGillivray (slightly southwest of Seton Lake, pictured near the top right), Yale and Boston Bar (between Hope and Lytton near the Highway 1 marker), and communities along Highway 3 west of Allison Pass (not pictured). Lasqueti Island, however, is in numbering plan area 250. Lower mainland.png
Area code 604 serves the coloured areas, as well as D'Arcy and McGillivray (slightly southwest of Seton Lake, pictured near the top right), Yale and Boston Bar (between Hope and Lytton near the Highway 1 marker), and communities along Highway 3 west of Allison Pass (not pictured). Lasqueti Island, however, is in numbering plan area 250.

Area code 604 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for the southwestern corner of British Columbia, Canada. The numbering plan area comprises Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Howe Sound / Sea-to-Sky Corridor, Fraser Valley, and the lower Fraser Canyon regions. The area code is one of the nine original North American area codes assigned to Canada in 1947. The numbering plan area is also served by area codes 236, 257, 672, and 778 in an overlay complex that extends to the entire province.

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History

Area code 604 is one of the original 86 area codes assigned in 1947 in the contiguous United States and Canada. It designated the province of British Columbia. 604 also served Point Roberts, Washington, a pene-enclave of the United States until 1968, when the area was reassigned to area code 206; since 1995, it is served by area code 360.

Despite British Columbia's growth in the second half of the 20th century, 604 remained the province's sole area code for nearly 50 years. By the mid-1990s, however, the need for a new area code in the province arose from rapid expansion of telecommunication services for cell phones and pagers. The number shortage was particularly severe in the Lower Mainland, which was home to most of the province's landlines and most of its other telecommunications devices requiring telephone numbers.

On October 19, 1996, numbering plan area 604 was reduced to span Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, including the Sunshine Coast and Whistler, with the remainder of the province served by the new area code 250. [1]

Although the 1996 split was intended as a long-term solution, within three years, 604 was close to exhaustion once again, due to the continued proliferation of cell phones and pagers. Numbers tended to be used up fairly quickly in Vancouver and its immediate neighbours.

On November 3, 2001, area code 778 was implemented as a concentrated overlay for the two largest regional districts in the Lower Mainland, Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Regional District. The experiment was announced in NANPA Planning Letter 246. [2] The remainder of the Lower Mainland continued to use only 604, but the addition of area code 778 required the implementation of ten-digit dialling throughout the region.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced on June 7, 2007, that 778 would become an overlay for the entire province on July 4, 2007. [3] Effective June 23, 2008, ten-digit dialling became mandatory throughout the entire province of British Columbia, and attempts to make a seven-digit call triggered an intercept message with a reminder of the new rule. After September 12, 2008, seven-digit dialling was no longer functional. [4] Overlays have become the preferred method of relief in Canada, as they offer an easy workaround for the number allocation problem.

The incumbent local exchange carrier for 604 and 778 is Telus. Through "number portability" and sub-allocation of all numbers in some exchanges to a competitor, many numbers in the 778 area code are serviced by Rogers Communications (formerly Shaw Communications). [5]

On June 1, 2013, area code 236 was implemented as a distributed overlay of area codes 604, 250, and 778 and was expected to be exhausted in May 2020. [6] [7] As a result, area code 672 was implemented as an additional distributed overlay on May 4, 2019, to relieve area codes 604, 250, 778, and 236. [7]

Service area

See also

References

  1. "Bellcore Information Letter 95/08-007: NANP-Split of 604 (British Columbia) Numbering Plan Area (NPA)" (PDF). NANPA/Bellcore Letter. August 17, 1995. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  2. "Planning Letter 246: NPA 778 To Overlay NPA 604 (Southwestern British Columbia)" (PDF). NANPA. October 27, 2000. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  3. New dialing to come in British Columbia Archived June 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Ten-digit dialing coming to all of B.C.
  5. "Shaw Cablesystems". Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  6. "Telecom Decision CRTC 2011-451". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. July 28, 2011. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
  7. 1 2 Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (February 14, 2018). "Relief for area codes 236, 250, 604, and 778 in British Columbia". crtc.gc.ca. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
British Columbia area codes: 250, 604, 236/257/672/778
North: 250, 236/257/672/778
West: 250, 236/257/672/778 604, 236/257/672/778 East: 250, 236/257/672/778
South: 360/564
Washington area codes: 206, 253, 360, 425, 509, 564