Carriers that supply telephone and cellphone service to P.E.I. have been adding a new area code these past few years.
Edward Antecol, general manager of the Canadian Numbering Administrator (CNA), the body overseeing phone numbers in Canada, said last week that the area code 782 has been available for use as of late 2015 to customers in Nova Scotia and P.E.I.
According to the CNA’s website, the area code is being used in Charlottetown and in Montague.
The administrator created the 782 area code based on a request from carriers such as Rogers and Bell Aliant because the 902 area code was expected to be exhausted by 2015, which Antecol says is the case at the moment.
That’s despite the fact that fewer than two million people reside in P.E.I. and Nova Scotia where 902 is used, and that there are 7.8 million possible seven-digit telephone numbers in the 902 system.
"If you check our website and click on number lookup ... as you can see (782) is starting to fill in. It is getting used and if you look at 902, it’s getting full, pretty much, so you did need (a new area code)."
In October 2012, the relief area code 782 was announced, which overlays the entire 902 area. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. in November 2014. The decision to implement a bi-provincial overlay was made to spare residents in rural areas of Nova Scotia and P.E.I. the burden of having to change numbers.
“A lot of upheaval happened in 2014 to get ready for this,’’ Antecol said, referring to customers adjusting to 10-digit dialing.
“If you check our website and click on number lookup ... as you can see (782) is starting to fill in. It is getting used, and if you look at 902, it’s getting full, pretty much, so you did need (a new area code).’’
Antecol said P.E.I. will need a third area code by 2034.
Antecol said the administrator surveys carriers twice a year to see how many blocks they’ve used and how many they think they will need over the next five years.
“When we surveyed the carriers in 2015 after we had released 782 into the inventory, we were projecting an exhaust in 2036,’’ he said, referring to when another new area code will be required.
Additional surveys have since been done.
