Alberta phone users face numbers crunch.
Making a phone call in Alberta used to be so simple. There was one area code and you only needed it for long distance.
But the province’s insatiable demand for phone numbers means it will probably get a fourth area code in just a handful of years and eventually 12-digit local calling — but that’s still decades away.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced Thursday that all three of the province’s area codes are expected to be exhausted by June 2018, according to the Canadian Numbering Administrator, which manages the distribution of numbers.
Southern Ontario is facing the same problem. Its 226 and 519 codes are forecast to run out by January 2017.
CRTC spokesman Denis Carmel said numbers are vanishing as Alberta’s population and the number of communications devices skyrockets — from fax machines to mobile devices.
The advent of new telecommunications service providers each needing to reserve numbers also eats into the supply.
“All these factors add to the fact that we need, on a regular basis, a new area code,” said Carmel.
An area code has a lifespan of about eight years, while Alberta’s newest code, 587, is expected to last about 10 years. The 780 and 403 numbers are virtually exhausted, he said.
Each area code has a possible 7.8 million number combinations.
North America has about 307 unassigned three-digit area codes left out of a total of 670.
The CRTC said it is striking a committee of public and industry members to look at solutions to Alberta’s number crunch and make recommendations, the usual procedure when an area code is forecast to run out. A report is expected by mid-2013 and a CRTC decision by year end.
“We have to look at all the alternatives and there’s always peculiarities in each of the areas,” Denis said.
The CRTC has set aside a fourth area code, 825, for future use in Alberta. After that, North America and the Caribbean could introduce a new system with 12-digit local calls.
“We are looking at 2042 and beyond,” Denis said of adopting 12-digit dialing.
The committee will also look at the two main options of adopting a new area code: the split method and the overlay. Alberta has used both.
Alberta was split into two area codes in 1999, when the southern third of the province retained the 403 code, while the north had to adopt 780.
But in late 2008 when the third area code, 587, was introduced, it was overlaid, meaning it was handed out provincewide.
Telus spokesman Chris Gerritsen said the company — which will be represented on the committee along with other service providers — would prefer the overlay method.
“Doing an overlay over the province causes the least disruption,” Gerritsen said. “That way, numbers stay the same and new numbers added would get that new area code, if that’s the decision of the committee.”
Gerritsen said the proliferation of area codes in Alberta comes with the explosion of communications devices.
“Back in the olden days, so to speak, a house might have one or two lines, but now a single household can have four, five, or six devices,” he said.
“I’ve got two devices and my wife does and maybe my kids have a cellphone or two, and then there’s tablets and Internet sticks.
“They all need numbers.”