BC starts rolling out its fourth area code tomorrow
Posted May 31, 2013 6:47 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Starting tomorrow, you may notice a different number popping up on your caller ID; BC will be rolling out its fourth area code. It will affect anyone across the province who is getting a new number.
Liz Sauvé with Telus says they expect to see some hiccups with the new 236 area code as people get used to it. “We’re anticipating it to roll out pretty slowly and it’s all dependent on where service providers have run out of the existing area codes.”
The 250, 604, and 778 codes are still in effect.
“It’s likely that a lot of people won’t be seeing ‘236’ pop up immediately,” explains Sauvé. “The good news is no one has to change their phone number. And in areas where we still have the existing codes available, the new number won’t be popping up until we’ve used all of those.”
The new area code was approved by the CRTC following an explosion in the number of smartphone users and those using wireless devices.
Residential users don’t need to make any changes to their phones, but businesses that restrict long-distance calls will have to re-program their equipment to accept the new code as a local number.
Until 1996, ‘604’ was the only area code in BC. Then ‘250’ was introduced to serve people living outside the boundaries of Greater Vancouver.
In 2001, ‘778’ was brought in and 10-digit dialling was implemented to the Lower Mainland before being fully extended province-wide seven years later.
Another area code, ‘672,’ has already been set aside for BC when we need it down the line.
