Area codes 519 and 226

519 is the telephone area code which covers most of southwestern Ontario and was introduced in 1953 from portions of area codes 416 and 613. In 1957, parts of 519 and 613 formed 705. It is mostly bounded by area code 905, except for Simcoe County which is bordered by 705. It was overlaid with the new area code 226 on October 21, 2006, at which time ten-digit dialing became mandatory. Area code 226 is Canada's 25th geographical area code (not including area code 600).

The incumbent local exchange carriers in 519/226 are Bell Canada, Rogers, Amtelecom, Execulink Telecom and several other independent companies that cover vast tracts of rural Ontario.

Contents

History

The 226 area code was first proposed as a result of an NPA exhaustion study conducted in the 1990s. The issue was raised with the CRTC by telecommunications firms and SAIC Canada, and in 1992 a relief plan was approved (Telecom Decision CRTC 2002-25). Although it primarily accepted the industry proposal, the CRTC required a permissive dialling period of four months, with consistent network announcements to consumers, instead of the proposed two month period. On April 15, 2003, the committee recommended delaying the introduction of the 226 area code from February 19, 2005 to October 21, 2006, primarily as a result of updated forecasts of the 519 NPA exhaustion projections.

Area code 519 covers a wide area (over 36,000 km²), and no single municipality controlling a majority of the available numbers. In theory, therefore, the 226 overlay area code could have been introduced without breaking seven-digit dialing in any of the NPA 519 communities. This would, however, have required exchange numbers to be issued in a specific pattern. For instance, if 519-999-9999 were a Windsor number, the same number in the new area code, 226-999-9999, would haveto be issued in London, Guelph, or some other community that would never be a local call to any point in the Windsor area.

Dialing areas

See also

External links


Ontario area codes: 226, 249, 289, 343, 365, 416, 519, 613, 647, 705, 807, 905
North: 705
West: 313, 586, 734, 810, 989 Area code 226/519 East: 705, 905/289
South: 216, 419/567, 440, 814, 582 (future)
Michigan area codes: 231, 248, 269, 313, 517, 586, 616, 734, 810, 906, 947, 989
Ohio area codes: 216, 234, 330, 419, 440, 513, 567, 614, 740, 937
Pennsylvania area codes: 215, 267, 412, 484, 570, 610, 717, 724, 814, 878