Wikipedia

Area code 867

Area code 867is thearea codein theNorth American Numbering Plan(NANP) for the threeCanadian territories,all of which are inNorthern Canada.The area code was created on October 21, 1997, by combining regions that were previously served witharea code 403andarea code 819in one numbering plan area (NPA). As the least populated NPA in mainland North America, serving about 130,000 people, it is geographically the largest, at 3,921,739 km2(1,514,192 sq mi), withAlaska(907) a distant second.

Canada's numbering plan area 867

The numbering plan area is adjacent to seven provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Quebec) and oneU.S. state(Alaska), as well asGreenlandandRussia(across theNorth Pole), more jurisdictions than any other in North America. It is also one of two Canadian area codes that are not part of anoverlay numbering plan,the other being807.

Theincumbent local exchange carrierfor area code 867 isNorthwestel,a subsidiary ofBCE.Until 1964, the geographic area served today by 867 hadup to five independent telephone companies,as well asBell Canada.[citation needed]

History

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In 1947,Albertawas assigned area code 403 in the first continent-wide telephone numbering plan by theAmerican Telephone and Telegraph Company(AT&T).[1]When service became available from local regional carriers, individual locations inYukonand the west of theNorthwest Territorieswere served via the area code of the carrier. These companies were eventually merged into Canadian National Telecommunications, a subsidiary of theCanadian National Railway.CNT's operations in the territories becameNorthwestelin 1979.

The eastern Northwest Territories were among the last areas of North America without telephone service. When the area code system was created, the region was nominally part of westernQuebec'sarea code 514.[citation needed]In 1957, those non-diallable areas were nominally shifted to eastern Quebec'sarea code 418.[citation needed]Bell Canadaintroduced telephone service in the eastern Northwest Territories in 1958. Asdirect distance dialingwas rolled out in this area in the 1970s, the eastern Northwest Territories and a large swath of northwestern Quebec were reassigned to western Quebec's area code 819. Bell Canada sold its northern service territory to Northwestel in 1992. In 1993, Bell Communications Research, functioning as theNorth American Numbering Plan Administrationlisted the vast majority of the territories witharea code 403.[2]

Until area code 867 was created, area codes 403 and 819 had been geographically the two largest in the North American Numbering Plan. The area code commenced service on October 21, 1997.[3]Since its creation, all of the former 819 portion of the Northwest Territories, as well as the portion of the former 403 portion covering five exchanges, has become part ofNunavut.The split reduced area code 403 for service of Alberta only.

All existing central office prefixes, with one exception, were retained in the change to area code 867. An assignment conflict between 403-979 atInuvikand 819-979 atIqaluitwas resolved by changing Inuvik from 403-979 to 867-777. A minor programming error allowed for a few weeks late in 1997 callers in the Inuvik area to dial 403-777 and reach Inuvik when they actually should have routed toCalgary,which appeared on customer's bills, along with the higher rate.

Evolution of area codes in northern territories[citation needed]

Northwestel's proposal for a new regulatory regime was approved for 2007 to allow resale of local telephone service, but no competitors entered the market to avail themselves of the resale option. In 2011, facilities-based local service competition was approved by theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission(CRTC) and so additional central office codes are now required for competitive carriers wishing to offer local service. The expense limits deployment so far toWhitehorse,Yellowknife,Inuvik,Behchokǫ̀,AklavikandHay River,four of which already have multiple prefixes. Communities that now have only one prefix are not likely to need a second prefix other than for local growth or the entry of a competitor (as in Aklavik and the twin Behchokǫ̀ communities, Rae-Edzo[a]).

The sparsely-populated area is unlikely to exhaust telephone numbers in the foreseeable future.

in June 2021, the CRTC recommended implementing the three-digit code 9-8-8 for the nationwide suicide prevention hotline. The CRTC decision followed the decision of the USFederal Communications Commissionto adopt 9-8-8 as the number for theNational Suicide Prevention Lifeline.[4]988 was already in use as a local exchange in the Yellowknife area, which would requireten-digit dialingin area code 867. In August 2022, the CRTC finalized its implementation plans for 9-8-8, effective November 30, 2023; it accepted a request from Northwestel to make ten-digit dialing mandatory only in the Yellowknife area and optional elsewhere within the region as of May 31, 2023, in part because it would ease the process of communicating the transition to remote communities and in Indigenous languages.[5]

Numbering plan area

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Area code 867 is the most expensive geographic destination in Canada.[6]Iristel,the majorCLECin the region, bills subscribers in other area codes a 15¢/minute premium to call 867-numbers, and charges a$20/year premium to issue a 867-number in-region instead of assigning the same subscriber any other Canadian area code.[7]

The digits of the area code were reportedly chosen to promote the theme "TOP of the world", as 867 spellsTOPon a standardNorth Americankeypad.[8]When combined with the NANP international dialing code1,it spells1867,which is the year ofCanadian Confederation.

The area code serves the largest land area of any area code in the NANP. The territorial extent reaches 3,173 km (1,972 mi) fromCape DyeronBaffin Islandto the Alaska border, and 4,391 km (2,728 mi) from the south end ofJames Bayto theNorth Pole.The largest distances between exchanges are 2,200 km (1,400 mi) fromSanikiluaqtoGrise Fiord,and 3,365 km (2,091 mi) fromBeaver CreektoPangnirtung.Four different officialtime zonesare observed within the area:Eastern,Central,Mountain,andPacific.

Exchanges

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Area code 867 serves all points in the three Canadian territories, theNorthwest Territories,Nunavut,andYukon

Some exchanges in the territories serve some customers inFraserandSwan Lake,British Columbia (fromCarcrossandSwift River,respectively).Fitzgerald, Alberta,is served fromFort Smith, Northwest Territories.[9]On a section of theAlaska Highwaywhich crosses the BC-Yukon border six times in 6 mi (9.7 km), two highway lodges and area residents on the Yukon side are served byWatson Lake(867) numbers, not the nearerLower Post(250) exchange.

Ellesmere Islandis the northernmost terrestrial point in Canada. On Ellesmere, conventional telephony is available atGrise Fiord(1-867-980-xxxx), population 130, but not at two remote government outposts further north:Eureka, Nunavut(80.1°N) is host to anEnvironment Canadaweather station[10]andAlert, Nunavut(82°N) is a Canadian Forces Station.[11]The only outside communication to Eureka is via satellite;[12]the weather station lists various extensions of anOttawa613federal number, anIridiumsatellite phoneor theWinnipeg204number of a main Environment Canada office.[13]As Eureka is at the northern limit of access togeosynchronous satellitesignals, a string of military terrestrialUHFlinks extends the signal from "Fort Eureka" toCFS Alert.[14]There is a skeleton crew at each location which is reachable by Internet or telephone, but these links are satellite or military communication and do not use the area code 867 infrastructure.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Behchokǫ̀ has two separate exchange areas, each with its own prefix, but Iristel's 292 prefix is overlaid, with both using independent facilities

References

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  1. ^Mabbs, Ralph (Winter 1947–1948)."Nation-Wide Operator Toll Dialing—the Coming Way".Bell Telephone Magazine.26(4): 181.Retrieved2023-09-26.
  2. ^"Status of Numbering Plan Area (NPA) Codes in World Zone 1"(PDF).Bellcore (NANPA). 1993-01-13.Retrieved2023-05-26.
  3. ^"NANP–Introduction of New 867 (Yukon & Northwest Territories) Numbering Plan Area (NPA)"(PDF).BellCore (NANPA). 1996-09-30.Retrieved2023-05-26.
  4. ^"Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2021-191".Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. June 3, 2021.RetrievedJune 21,2021.
  5. ^Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission(August 31, 2022)."Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2022-234: Introduction of 9-8-8 as the three-digit abbreviated dialing code for mental health crisis and suicide prevention services and Northwestel Inc.'s application for modified implementation of ten-digit local dialing".RetrievedSeptember 6,2022.
  6. ^"Archived copy".les.net.Archived fromthe originalon 31 August 2013.Retrieved26 January2022.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^Andrew Robulack."It's time to ditch 867".Yukon News.Retrieved2013-06-10.
  8. ^Bowen, Dana (May–June 2021). "The Call of the North".Up Here.Vol. 37, no. 3. p. 17.
  9. ^"Canadian Numbering Plan and Dialling Plan"(PDF).The Canadian Steering Committee on Numbering (CSCN). October 26, 2011. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on November 5, 2013.RetrievedMarch 26,2014.
  10. ^Canada, Environment and Climate Change."Nunavut environmental science centres - Canada.ca".Ec.gc.ca.Retrieved15 January2018.
  11. ^Force, Government of Canada, National Defence, Royal Canadian Air."Canadian Forces Station Alert - 8 Wing - Royal Canadian Air Force".Rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca.Archived fromthe originalon 24 September 2015.Retrieved15 January2018.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^"A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO EUREKA"(PDF).Wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.Retrieved15 January2018.
  13. ^"Archived copy".Archived fromthe originalon 2015-01-11.Retrieved2015-01-11.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ^Proc, Jerry."CFS Alert".Jproc.ca.Retrieved15 January2018.
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Yukon,Northwest TerritoriesandNunavutarea codes:867
North:Arctic Ocean,Country code+7inRussia
West:907 Area Code 867 East:Atlantic Ocean,Country code+299inGreenland
South:204/431,250/778/236/672,306/639,705/249,709,780/403/587/825/368,807,819/873
Alaskaarea codes:907
Albertaarea codes:403,587/825/368,780
British Columbiaarea codes:250,604,778/236/672
Manitobaarea codes:204/431/584
Newfoundland and Labradorarea codes:709/879
Ontarioarea codes:416/437/647,519/226/548/382,613/343/753,705/249/683,807,905/289/365/742
Saskatchewanarea codes:306/639/474
Quebecarea codes:418/581/367,450/579/354,514/438/263,819/873/468

66°31′N109°16′W/ 66.52°N 109.26°W/66.52; -109.26

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