Area codes 450 and 579

Longueuil

Area codes 450 and 579 are telephone area codes in the Canadian province of Quebec, encompassing the off-island suburbs of Montreal, which is served by area codes 514 and 438. Among the cities served by area code 450 are Longueuil and Laval. The communities of Ormstown, Huntingdon, Boucherville, Varennes, Roussillon, Joliette, Saint-Hyacinthe, Granby, Chambly, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Vaudreuil-Dorion are also part of this area code. The 450 area code is also shared by several small communities in an adjacent part of Ontario: some landline customers in Chute-à-Blondeau (East Hawkesbury), near Pointe-Fortune have +1-450-451-xxxx numbers from the Rigaud phone exchange.

514 had served the entire Montreal area for over half a century. However, by the mid-1990s it was on the verge of exhaustion due to Montreal's rapid growth and Canada's inefficient system of number allocation. All Canadian competitive local exchange carriers are allocated blocks of 10,000 numbers for every rate centre where they plan to offer service, even in the smallest hamlets. Even though most rate centres don't need nearly that many numbers, a number can't be reallocated elsewhere once assigned to a carrier and rate centre. This resulted in thousands of wasted numbers. By the latter years of the 20th century, this made a second area code necessary in Canada's second-largest toll-free calling zone.

450 entered service in 1998. It completely surrounds 514, which was confined to the Island of Montreal and a few surrounding islands. For this reason, Montrealers sometimes refer to the off-island suburbs as "les 450" (the 450s), much like the suburbs of Toronto are called "the 905."

On May 7, 2009, the CRTC ruled that area code 438, which had been used as an overlay for 514 since 2006, would be extended to overlay both 450 and 514.[1] However, a later decision revised it and ruled that 579 would overlay 450 on its own, effective August 21, 2010.[2] On May 2, 2011 a prepaid mobile telephone registered to "Pierre Poutine, Separatist Street, Joliette" at (450) 760-7746 on Bell Mobility's "Virgin" service played a key role in a robocall scandal in which voters in Guelph, Ontario were inundated with calls directing them to the wrong polling station.[3][4]

The main incumbent local exchange carrier for 450/579 is Bell Canada. The main competitive local exchange carriers for 450/579 are Vidéotron and Telus. There are independent companies as well.

Places that use this area code

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.cnac.ca/npa_codes/relief/450/documents/FINAL_NPA_450_IPD_10_November_2008.doc%5B%5D
  2. ↑ http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2009/28/c9180.html
  3. ↑ http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/29/pierre-poutine-made-6700-robocalls-in-guelph-on-election-day-using-450-number/
  4. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/robocalls-phone-number-registered-to-pierre-poutine-1.1147355

See also

Quebec area codes: 418, 438, 450, 514, 579, 581, 819
North: 819/873
West: 613/343, 819/873 Area code 450/579 completely surrounding 514/438 East: 819/873
South: 518, 802
New York area codes: 212, 315, 332, 347, 516, 518, 585, 607, 631, 646, 680, 716, 718, 838, 845, 914, 917, 929, 934
Ontario area codes: 226, 249, 289, 343, 365, 416, 519, 613, 647, 705, 807, 905
Vermont area codes: 802

Coordinates: 45°37′N 73°56′W / 45.61°N 73.94°W / 45.61; -73.94

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