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Area code 250 is a call area code in the north american english Numbering Plan ( NANP ) for the canadian province of British Columbia outside the Lower Mainland, including Vancouver Island –home to the peasant capital, Victoria –and the state ‘s Interior region. In addition, the number design area extends into the United States community of Hyder, Alaska, located along the Canada–United States margin near the town of Stewart. The incumbent local anesthetic exchange carriers that service the area code are Telus, Northwestel, and CityWest in the city of Prince Rupert .
history [edit ]
Area code 250 was created on October 19, 1996, as a separate of area code 604, which was retained by the Lower Mainland. [ 1 ] Prior to 1996, 604 had been the exclusive area code in British Columbia for about half a hundred. british Columbia would have probable needed another sphere code in any consequence because of the province ‘s growth in the second half of the twentieth century, but the burst was hastened by Canada ‘s system of count allotment. Canada does not use number pool as a relief measurement. rather, each competitive local exchange aircraft carrier is allocated blocks of 10,000 numbers ( corresponding to a single prefix ) in each rate center in which it plans to offer service, even in the smallest hamlets. once a prefix is assigned to a aircraft carrier and pace centre, it can not be moved elsewhere even if a rate center has more than enough numbers to serve its customers. That has resulted in thousands of consume numbers, a problem that has been exacerbated by the proliferation of facsimile machines and pagers and then of cell phones. By the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, 250 was already on the verge of debilitation, again because of the number allotment problem and the cover proliferation of cellular telephone phones, particularly on Vancouver Island and in the larger cities of the department of the interior. Amid projections that 250 would be exhausted by January 2008, the canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission began considering easing options in early 2007. Proposals included : [ 2 ]
Reading: Area code 250 – Wikipedia
- a geographic split that would have left 250 with the interior and switched Vancouver Island to a new area code
- expanding area code 778, previously a concentrated overlay for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, to the 250 territory
- concentrated overlays covering part of the 250 territory
several of the major land line and wireless providers in the 250 district powerfully favoured an overlie and stated that it would be easier to implement than a split. They besides wanted to spare themselves and their customers the expense and burden of changing their numbers, which would have required a massive reprogramming of cellular telephone phones. [ 3 ] The proposal for a cleave would have forced Vancouver Island ‘s residents to change their numbers for a second time in a decade. [ 2 ]
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The CRTC announced on June 7, 2007 that 778 would be expanded to become an overlie for the entire state start that July 4. On that date, exchanges in 778 became available to Vancouver Island and interior residents, and a permissive dial period began across British Columbia during which it was possible to make local calls with either seven or ten digits. [ 4 ] Three CO prefixes in the 250 area code were reserved for habit by Northwestel, as 13 of its 15 switches could not then handle multiple area codes, and its arrangement could not accommodate ten-digit-dialling. [ 3 ]
The CRTC decided on an overlay after concluding that there was not enough time to implement a rip before 250 was due to exhaust in January 2008. [ 3 ] Effective June 23, 2008, ten-digit dial became compulsory throughout the entire state, and attempts to make a seven-digit call triggered an intercept message with a admonisher of the raw principle. After September 12, 2008, seven-digit dial no longer functioned. [ 5 ] Overlays have become the prefer method acting of sphere code respite in Canada, as they are an easy workaround for the number allocation problem, as opposed to a split plan. On June 1, 2013, area code 236 was implemented as a distribute overlie of sphere codes 250, 604, and 778 and was expected to be exhausted by May 2020. [ 6 ] As a resultant role, sphere code 672 was implemented on May 4, 2019, as an extra circulate overlay to relieve area codes 250, 604, 778, and 236. [ 6 ]
Service sphere and cardinal agency codes [edit ]
See besides [edit ]
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