Residents in Guelph who are getting a new phone number may be among the first to receive southwestern Ontario’s newest area code.
An organization tasked by the CRTC to administer and distribute telephone numbers across Canada says phone companies have begun to offer the new 548 area code in Guelph and southwestern Ontario.
New area codes are put in place a few years before they are needed and a third area code for southwestern Ontario serviced by 519 and 226 was announced in 2016, said Edward Antecol, general manager of Canadian Numbering Administrator (CNA), the body overseeing phone numbers in Canada.
CNA distributes numbers in six-digit blocks — the area code and first three numbers — to various telephone companies and cell phone carriers.
“When we are running low on blocks to give out based on forecasts, we set up the process to put another area code in,” said Antecol. “If we are forecasting that we are going to run out within three years, we start the planning process to get another code in place.”
At the time it was approved, CNA forecasted that some number blocks would be exhausted by January 2017.
Antecol said the 548 area code recently starting to be distributed to some carriers.
“It’s starting to get used,” he said.
In a post to Facebook, one Guelph woman said she received a 548 area code when her new Rogers land line was installed about three weeks ago.
GuelphToday called a three local stores who provide telephone service and none of the people who answered said they were not aware of the new area code and had not yet sold a phone that had been assigned it.
The new area code will open up millions of new phone numbers in the region and will not affect the phone numbers currently in circulation.
The 519 area code was first introduced to the are in 1953 and in 1957, some of the area it covered was combined with a portion of the 613 area code to create the current 705 calling area.
In 2006, the 226 area code was added to the existing 519 area code for southwestern Ontario. Ten-digit dialing was made mandatory in the same year.
Dialing special three-digit numbers, like 411 and 911, will be unaffected by the addition of the new area code.
Although not yet in operation, a fourth area code — 382 — has been reserved for future use in the region.
