Telephone numbers in Canada

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]

Telephone numbers in Canada

Country	Canada
Continent	North America
Country code	1
International access	011
Long-distance	1

Syntax and telephone number notation

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 [phone], 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.^[2] 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. [phone].

Prefix assignments

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.

Numbering plan areas

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, 257
Manitoba	204		431, 584
New Brunswick	(902)*	506	428
Newfoundland and Labrador		(902)*, 709	879
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island	902		782
Ontario	416, 613	519, 705, 807, 905	226, 249, 289, 343, 382, 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 numbering plan areas have been split in Canada since 1999.

Area codes 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.

Central office codes

Mobile phones

Under Canada's present plan Mobile phone subscriber numbers are not uniquely different from land-line numbers, and thus follow the same rules for format and area code. Numbers may also 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 are general free to support any wireless standards with 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.^[3]

Toll-free and premium numbers

Non-geographic toll-free telephone numbers (800, 833,^[4] 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.

Administration and oversight

A number of bodies and partners a framework through cooperation to help maintain a state of stability in the Canadian numbering system including:^[5]

Local Canadian Canadian Local Number Portability Consortium (CLNPC) Canadian Numbering Administrator/Administrateur de la numérotation canadienne Canadian Numbering Administration Consortium (CNAC) Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC) - Agreements, Guideline, Manuals & Procedures CISC - Committee on Numbering (CSCN) Guideline Neustar Canadian Number Portability Administration Center (Canadian NPAC)

International International Telecommunication Union (ITU) North American Numbering Council (NANC) North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) American National Standards Institute Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) the 800 Service Management System (SMS/800) Industry Numbering Committee (INC) National Exchange Carriers Association (NECA) Telcordia Routing Administration (TRA)

See also

• Telephone numbers in the Americas