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Area codes 902 and 782

Telephone area codes for Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Area codes 902 and 782 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Area code 902 was one of the nine original North American area codes in Canada established in October 1947. Area code 782 was added to the numbering plan area in August 2014, to form an overlay complex in mitigation of telephone number shortages.

History

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When the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) established the first continental telephone numbering plan for Operator Toll Dialing in 1947, the Canadian provinces were organized into nine numbering plan areas (NPAs) with one unique area codes each. Area code 902 was assigned to the area comprising The Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island).

In 1949, Newfoundland was added in an expansion of numbering plan area 902. But by 1955, the code was withdrawn from service in New Brunswick and Newfoundland, which received area code 506 in the split, leaving only two of the Maritimes with 902.[1]

Around 2000, when the United States transitioned to telephone number pooling, the Canadian administrators of NANP numbering resources did not participate, and kept allocating blocks of ten thousand numbers, an entire central office prefix, to competitive local exchange carriers in every rate centre where the carrier offers new service. While only 1.06 million people reside in numbering plan area 902, which provides 7.8 million possible seven-digit telephone numbers, the area code was projected to be exhausted by 2015.

In October 2012, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) directed that numbering relief for Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island be implemented as an area code overlay of 902 with area code 782.[2] Ten-digit dialing became mandatory in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as of November 30, 2014.[3] The decision to implement a bi-provincial overlay may have been unusual, but was made to spare residents in rural areas of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island the burden of having to change numbers. As a result, area code 782 was introduced on August 23, 2014.[4] Central office codes for 782 were made available to telephone service providers on May 30, 2014, which could not be activated until November 30, 2014, the official in-service date.[2]

In November 2022, area code 851 was reserved for future assignment as a third area code for the region, but no relief planning has been initiated, as the projected time frame for exhaust has been determined for April 2029.[5]

The incumbent local exchange carrier in the numbering plan area is Bell Aliant, which was produced from a merger that included Island Telecom Inc. (formerly Island Telephone, but both were informally shortened to Island Tel), Maritime Telephone and Telegraph (MT&T), New Brunswick Tel (NBTel) and NewTel Communications (NewTel).[citation needed]

Service area

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Perspective

The numbering plan area spans two entire provinces, much like area code 867 is shared by the three Canadian territories: Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon. This practice is today unique to Canada, but it was once practiced also for the Caribbean island states.

Nova Scotia

Prince Edward Island

Premium services

Premium services in the numbering plan area are provided with central office code 976: 1-902/782-976-xxxx.

See also

References

External links

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