Area code 867

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Canada's numbering plan area 867 Area Code 867.png
Canada's numbering plan area 867

Area code 867 is the area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the three Canadian territories, all of which are in Northern Canada. The area code was created on October 21, 1997, by combining regions that were previously served with area code 403 and area code 819 in one numbering plan area (NPA). As the least populated NPA in mainland North America, serving about 130,000 people, it is geographically the largest, at 3,921,739 km2 (1,514,192 sq mi), with Alaska (907) a distant second.

Contents

The numbering plan area is adjacent to seven provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Quebec) and one U.S. state (Alaska), as well as Greenland and Russia (across the North Pole), more jurisdictions than any other in North America. It is also one of three Canadian area codes that are not part of an overlay numbering plan, the others being 709 and 807.

The incumbent local exchange carrier for area code 867 is Northwestel, a subsidiary of BCE. Until 1964, the geographic area served today by 867 had up to five independent telephone companies, as well as Bell Canada.[ citation needed ]

History

In 1947, Alberta was assigned area code 403 in the first continent-wide telephone numbering plan by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T). [1] When service became available from local regional carriers, individual locations in Yukon and the west of the Northwest Territories were served via the area code of the carrier. These companies were eventually merged into Canadian National Telecommunications, a subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway. CNT's operations in the territories became Northwestel in 1979.

The eastern Northwest Territories were among the last areas of North America without telephone service. When the area code system was created, the region was nominally part of western Quebec's area code 514.[ citation needed ] In 1957, those non-diallable areas were nominally shifted to eastern Quebec's area code 418.[ citation needed ] Bell Canada introduced telephone service in the eastern Northwest Territories in 1958. As direct distance dialing was rolled out in this area in the 1970s, the eastern Northwest Territories and a large swath of northwestern Quebec were reassigned to western Quebec's area code 819. Bell Canada sold its northern service territory to Northwestel in 1992. In 1993, Bell Communications Research, functioning as the North American Numbering Plan Administration listed the vast majority of the territories with area code 403. [2]

Until area code 867 was created, area codes 403 and 819 had been geographically the two largest in the North American Numbering Plan. The area code commenced service on October 21, 1997. [3] Since its creation, all of the former 819 portion of the Northwest Territories, as well as the portion of the former 403 portion covering five exchanges, has become part of Nunavut. The split reduced area code 403 for service of Alberta only.

All existing central office prefixes, with one exception, were retained in the change to area code 867. An assignment conflict between 403-979 at Inuvik and 819-979 at Iqaluit was resolved by changing Inuvik from 403-979 to 867-777. A minor programming error allowed for a few weeks late in 1997 callers in the Inuvik area to dial 403-777 and reach Inuvik when they actually should have routed to Calgary, which appeared on customer's bills, along with the higher rate.

Evolution of area codes in northern territories NorthAreaCodeEvolution.JPG
Evolution of area codes in northern territories

Northwestel's proposal for a new regulatory regime was approved for 2007 to allow resale of local telephone service, but no competitors entered the market to avail themselves of the resale option. In 2011, facilities-based local service competition was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and so additional central office codes are now required for competitive carriers wishing to offer local service. The expense limits deployment so far to Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Inuvik, Behchokǫ̀, Aklavik and Hay River, four of which already have multiple prefixes. Communities that now have only one prefix are not likely to need a second prefix other than for local growth or the entry of a competitor (as in Aklavik and the twin Behchokǫ̀ communities, Rae-Edzo [lower-alpha 1] ).

The sparsely-populated area is unlikely to exhaust telephone numbers in the foreseeable future.

in June 2021, the CRTC recommended implementing the three-digit code 9-8-8 for the nationwide suicide prevention hotline. The CRTC decision followed the decision of the US Federal Communications Commission to adopt 9-8-8 as the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. [4] 988 was already in use as a local exchange in the Yellowknife area, which would require ten-digit dialing in area code 867. In August 2022, the CRTC finalized its implementation plans for 9-8-8, effective November 30, 2023; it accepted a request from Northwestel to make ten-digit dialing mandatory only in the Yellowknife area and optional elsewhere within the region as of May 31, 2023, in part because it would ease the process of communicating the transition to remote communities and in Indigenous languages. [5]

Numbering plan area

Area code 867 is the most expensive geographic destination in Canada. [6] Iristel, the major CLEC in the region, bills subscribers in other area codes a 15¢/minute premium to call 867-numbers, and charges a $20/year premium to issue a 867-number in-region instead of assigning the same subscriber any other Canadian area code. [7]

The digits of the area code were reportedly chosen to promote the theme "TOP of the world", as 867 spells TOP on a standard North American keypad. [8] When combined with the NANP international dialing code 1, it spells 1867, which is the year of Canadian Confederation.

The area code serves the largest land area of any area code in the NANP. The territorial extent reaches 3,173 km (1,972 mi) from Cape Dyer on Baffin Island to the Alaska border, and 4,391 km (2,728 mi) from the south end of James Bay to the North Pole. The largest distances between exchanges are 2,200 km (1,400 mi) from Sanikiluaq to Grise Fiord, and 3,365 km (2,091 mi) from Beaver Creek to Pangnirtung. Four different official time zones are observed within the area: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific.

Exchanges

Area code 867 serves all points in the three Canadian territories, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon

Some exchanges in the territories serve some customers in Fraser and Swan Lake, British Columbia (from Carcross and Swift River, respectively). Fitzgerald, Alberta, is served from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. [9] On a section of the Alaska Highway which crosses the BC-Yukon border six times in 6 mi (9.7 km), two highway lodges and area residents on the Yukon side are served by Watson Lake (867) numbers, not the nearer Lower Post (250) exchange.

Ellesmere Island is the northernmost terrestrial point in Canada. On Ellesmere, conventional telephony is available at Grise Fiord (1-867-980-xxxx), population 130, but not at two remote government outposts further north: Eureka, Nunavut (80.1°N) is host to an Environment Canada weather station [10] and Alert, Nunavut (82°N) is a Canadian Forces Station. [11] The only outside communication to Eureka is via satellite; [12] the weather station lists various extensions of an Ottawa 613 federal number, an Iridium satellite phone or the Winnipeg 204 number of a main Environment Canada office. [13] As Eureka is at the northern limit of access to geosynchronous satellite signals, a string of military terrestrial UHF links extends the signal from "Fort Eureka" to CFS Alert. [14] There is a skeleton crew at each location which is reachable by Internet or telephone, but these links are satellite or military communication and do not use the area code 867 infrastructure.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Behchokǫ̀ has two separate exchange areas, each with its own prefix, but Iristel's 292 prefix is overlaid, with both using independent facilities

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North American Numbering Plan</span> Integrated telephone numbering plan of twenty North American countries

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the telephone country code 1. Some North American countries, most notably Mexico, do not participate in the NANP.

A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, reachable by a system of destination code routing. Telephone numbering plans are defined in each of the administrative regions of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and in private telephone networks.

Area codes 819, 873, and 468 are overlay telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for central and western Quebec, Canada, including the Quebec portion of the National Capital Region, and the Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay coastlines of Quebec. Major cities in the territory include Gatineau, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Drummondville, Shawinigan, Victoriaville, Rouyn-Noranda, Val-d'Or, Magog and Mont-Laurier.

In telecommunications, an area code overlay complex is a telephone numbering plan that assigns multiple area codes to a geographic numbering plan area (NPA). Area code overlays are implemented in territories of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) to mitigate exhaustion of central office codes in growth areas. The method has been in use since 1992, and has been the exclusive method of area code relief since 2007.

Ten-digit dialing is a telephone dialing procedure in the countries and territories that are members of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). It is the practice of including the area code of a telephone number when dialing to initiate a telephone call. When necessary, the ten-digit number may be prefixed with the trunk code 1, which is referred to as 1+10-digit dialing or national format.

Seven-digit dialing is a telephone dialing procedure customary in some territories of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for dialing telephone numbers in the same numbering plan area (NPA). NANP telephone numbers consist of ten digits, of which the leading three are the area code. In seven-digit dialing it is not necessary to dial the area code. The procedure is also sometimes known as local format or network format.

Northwestel Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company that is the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) and long-distance carrier in the territories of Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and part of Northern British Columbia. Originally established in 1979 by the Canadian National Railway from CN's northern telecommunications assets, it has been owned by BCE Inc. since 1988.

The Service Improvement Plan (SIP) was a program, during the years 2001–2009, mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to provide a defined level of basic telephone service to all Canadians, other than those so isolated that it is costly and impractical to reach. The companies completed the programs in the middle of the 2000-2009 decade, with a cut-off of availability to customers in 2007 or 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area codes 514, 438, and 263</span> Telephone area codes for Montreal

Area codes 514, 438, and 263 are telephone area codes of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Montreal and most of its on-island suburbs, specifically the Island of Montreal and Île Perrot in the Canadian province of Quebec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area code 868</span> Trinidad & Tobagos telephone area code under the North American Numbering Plan

The area code 868 is assigned to Trinidad and Tobago, a member of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). The telephone numbering plan for the country is known as the National Numbering Plan. It is part of a system used for assigning telephone numbers in Trinidad and Tobago, and functions as a part of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). It is regulated by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, which holds responsibility for telecommunications in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area code 907</span> Area code that serves Alaska, USA

Area code 907 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of Alaska, except for the small southeastern community of Hyder, which uses area codes 236, 250, and 778 of neighboring Stewart, British Columbia.

Area code 268 is the telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Antigua and Barbuda.

Area code 250 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the Canadian province of British Columbia outside the Lower Mainland, including Vancouver Island–home to the provincial capital, Victoria–and the province's Interior region. In addition, the numbering plan area extends into the United States community of Hyder, Alaska, located along the Canada–United States border near the town of Stewart. The incumbent local exchange carriers that service the area code are Telus, Northwestel, and CityWest in the city of Prince Rupert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area code 403</span> Telephone area code for southern Alberta

Area code 403 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the Canadian province of Alberta. The numbering plan area encompasses the southern third of the province, which includes the Calgary area. This numbering plan area is also served by area codes 587, 825, and 368, which form a complex overlay for all of Alberta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area code 780</span> Telephone area code for central and northern Alberta

Area code 780 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the Canadian province of Alberta. The numbering plan area comprises the northern two thirds of the province, including the Edmonton area. The area code was established in 1999 in a split of area code 403, which had served the entire province since the establishment of the original North American area codes in 1947. The numbering plan area is also served by area codes 587, 825, and 368, which form a complex overlay for all of Alberta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area code 574</span> Area code that serves South Bend and mishawaka and north-central Indiana

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area codes 587, 825, and 368</span> Overlay area codes for Alberta, Canada

Area codes 587, 825, and 368 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the entire Canadian province of Alberta. They form an overlay with area code 403 of southern Alberta, and northern Alberta's 780. The complex overlay involving a total of five area codes in Alberta mandated ten-digit dialing throughout the province.

Telephone numbers in Canada follow the fixed-length format of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) of a three-digit area code, a three-digit central office code, and a four-digit station or line code. This is represented as NPA NXX XXXX.

References

  1. ↑ Mabbs, Ralph (Winter 1947–1948). "Nation-Wide Operator Toll Dialing—the Coming Way". Bell Telephone Magazine. 26 (4): 181. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
  2. ↑ "Status of Numbering Plan Area (NPA) Codes in World Zone 1" (PDF). Bellcore (NANPA). 1993-01-13. Retrieved 2023-05-26.
  3. ↑ "NANP–Introduction of New 867 (Yukon & Northwest Territories) Numbering Plan Area (NPA)" (PDF). BellCore (NANPA). 1996-09-30. Retrieved 2023-05-26.
  4. ↑ "Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2021-191". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. June 3, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  5. ↑ Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (August 31, 2022). "Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2022-234: Introduction of 9-8-8 as the three-digit abbreviated dialing code for mental health crisis and suicide prevention services and Northwestel Inc.'s application for modified implementation of ten-digit local dialing" . Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". les.net. Archived from the original on 31 August 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ↑ Andrew Robulack. "It's time to ditch 867". Yukon News. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  8. ↑ Bowen, Dana (May–June 2021). "The Call of the North". Up Here . Vol. 37, no. 3. p. 17.
  9. ↑ "Canadian Numbering Plan and Dialling Plan" (PDF). The Canadian Steering Committee on Numbering (CSCN). October 26, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 5, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  10. ↑ Canada, Environment and Climate Change. "Nunavut environmental science centres - Canada.ca". Ec.gc.ca. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  11. ↑ Force, Government of Canada, National Defence, Royal Canadian Air. "Canadian Forces Station Alert - 8 Wing - Royal Canadian Air Force". Rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ "A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO EUREKA" (PDF). Wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-01-11. Retrieved 2015-01-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ↑ Proc, Jerry. "CFS Alert". Jproc.ca. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut area codes: 867
North: Arctic Ocean, Country code +7 in Russia
West: 907 Area Code 867East: Atlantic Ocean, Country code +299 in Greenland
South: 204/431, 250/778/236/672, 306/639, 705/249, 709, 780/403/587/825/368, 807, 819/873
Alaska area codes: 907
Alberta area codes: 403, 587/825/368, 780
British Columbia area codes: 236/672/778, 250, 604
Manitoba area codes: 204, 431
Newfoundland and Labrador area codes: 709
Ontario area codes: 226/519/548, 249/705, 289/365/742/905, 343/613, 416/437/647, 807
Saskatchewan area codes: 306, 639
Quebec area codes: 367/418/581, 263/438/514, 354/450/579, 468/819/873

66°31′N109°16′W / 66.52°N 109.26°W / 66.52; -109.26

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