| Location | |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Continent | North America |
| Access codes | |
| Country code | 1 |
| International access | 011 |
| Long-distance | 1 |
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 (or exchange code), and a four-digit station or line code. This is represented as NPA NXX XXXX. [1]
For international access the NANP is assigned the country code 1, which is dialed as a prefix in the international E.164 telephone numbering plan.
The trunk prefix for dialing long-distance calls, across numbering plan area (NPA) boundaries within Canada or to other NANP countries, is also 1.
Local calls from Canadian landlines are dialled without the trunk prefix. Overseas calls to locations outside the NANP are dialled with the 011 international prefix, followed by the country code and the national significant number.
Canada was divided into nine numbering plan areas with unique area codes in 1947 when the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) designed the first comprehensive telephone numbering plan for the North American continent for Operator Toll Dialing. This was an effort to speed up the connection time of long-distance telephone calls, by eliminating a large group of intermediate telephone operators, and implementing destination code routing. The effort eventually led to Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) by telephone subscribers, and the North American Numbering Plan.
Yukon, and the far northern regions, nor Newfoundland and Labrador which was a British dominion at the time, were not included in the first assignments of 1947, for lack of telephone service. Locations with service bordering a numbering plan area, were later served with codes of the regional carriers, such as Northwestel, with toll-routing infrastructure.
| Province / Territory | Area codes (1947) | Area codes by expansion and splits | Area codes by overlays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta | 403 | 780 | 368, 587, 825 |
| British Columbia | 604 | 250 | 236, 672, 778 |
| Manitoba | 204 | 431, 584 | |
| New Brunswick | (902)* | 506 | 428 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | (902)*, 709 | ||
| Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island | 902 | 782 | |
| Ontario | 416, 613 | 519, 705, 807, 905 | 226, 249, 289, 343, 365, 437, 548, 647, 683, 742, 753 |
| Quebec | 418, 514 | 450, 819 | 263, 354, 367, 438, 468, 579, 581, 873 |
| Saskatchewan | 306 | 474, 639 | |
| Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut | (403, 418, 819)**, 867 | ||
| Notes: * Area code was withdrawn from area ** served by codes of regional carriers | |||
No area codes have been split in Canada since 1999.
Area codes 709, 807, and 867 are the only remaining Canadian area codes that are not part of an overlay. Calls within each of these numbering plan areas may be initiated by seven-digit dialing.
Mobile phone numbers are not uniquely different from land-line numbers, and thus follow the same rules for format and area code. Numbers may be ported between landline and mobile. The rarely used non-geographic area code 600 is an exception to this pattern (non-portable, and allows caller-pays-airtime satellite telephony); some independent landline exchanges are also non-portable.
Mobile phone providers support either CDMA or GSM; both are being supplanted by UMTS. Telus shut down its CDMA in mid-2015; Bell Mobility's CDMA network, the country's last major provider of that type, went dark on January 1, 2017. [2]
Non-geographic toll-free telephone numbers (800, 833, [3] 844, 855, 866, 877, 888) and premium-rate telephone numbers (900) are allocated centrally by the NANP Administrator. Calls to telephone numbers with the central office code 976 are billed as expensive premium calls.
Canadian (and other North American Numbering Plan) telephone numbers are usually written as NPA-NXX-XXXX. For example, 250 555 0199, a fictional number, could be written as (250) 555-0199, 250-555-0199, 250-5550199, or 250/555-0199. The Government of Canada's Translation Bureau recommends using hyphens between groups; e.g. 250-555-0199. [4] Using the format specified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Recommendation E.164 for telephone numbers, a Canadian number is written as +1NPANXXXXXX, with no spaces, hyphens, or other characters; e.g. +12505550199.
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 toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefix similar to an area code. The specific service access varies by country.
The telephone number prefix 555 is a central office code in the North American Numbering Plan, used as the leading part of a group of 10,000 telephone numbers, 555-XXXX, in each numbering plan area (NPA). It has traditionally been used only for the provision of directory assistance, when dialing NPA-555-1212.
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.
Telephone numbers in the People's Republic of China are administered according to the Chinese Telephone Code Plan. The structure of telephone numbers for landlines and mobile service is different. Landline telephone numbers have area codes, whereas mobile numbers do not. In major cities, landline numbers consist of a two-digit area code followed by an eight-digit local number. In other places, landline numbers consist of a three-digit area code followed by a seven- or eight-digit local number. Mobile phone numbers consist of eleven digits.
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.
In Argentina, area codes are two, three, or four digits long. Local customer numbers are six to eight digits long. The total number of digits is ten, for example, phone number (11) 1234-5678 for Buenos Aires is made up of a 2-digit area code number and an 8-digit subscriber's number, while (383) 123-4567 would be an example of a Catamarca number.
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.
Numbers on the Irish telephone numbering plan are regulated and assigned to operators by ComReg.
Area code 246 is the telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Barbados. The sequence 246 spells BIM on an alpha-numeric telephone keypad, a nickname for the island.
Area codes 876 and 658 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Jamaica.
The expansion of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is the anticipated requirement for providing more telephone numbers to accommodate future needs beyond the pool of ten-digit telephone numbers. Ten-digit telephone numbers have been in use in the United States and Canada in long-distance telephone service since the 1950s. An October 2020 analysis estimated that the numbering plan would not be exhausted until after the year 2050.
Telephone numbers in Malaysia are regulated by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
Telephone numbers in Israel consist of an area code and a subscriber number. The dial plan type in Israel is closed, and "0" is the internal trunk prefix in Israel. Israel's country calling code is +972.
National conventions for writing telephone numbers vary by country. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) publishes a recommendation entitled Notation for national and international telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and Web addresses. Recommendation E.123 specifies the format of telephone numbers assigned to telephones and similar communication endpoints in national telephone numbering plans.
A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices for data transmission via the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or other public and private networks.
In the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), interchangeable NPA and central office codes constituted a change in numbering plan design and policy, to mitigate exhaustion of the numbering resources of the ten-digit telephone numbers used in the closed numbering plan of the NANP.
