If you plan to open a new telephone line this weekend, it could be one of the first in BC that has a number with the new area code 257.
The new area code will be added to the BC list from Saturday. It will join the existing codes 236, 250, 604, 672 and 778 in the service of residents throughout the province. The new area code will have no impact on existing telephone numbers.
Who comes up with new area codes?
The decision was taken by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 2023, after the Canadian numbering administrator (CNA) reported that the area codes that serve BC were “projected to exhaust” in May 2026.
The CNA is responsible for assigning central office (CO) codes, which are the three average numbers of a telephone number, within a new area code to telephone service providers once the CRTC has made a decision.
The CNA program manager, Kelly Walsh, says that telephone service providers can request specific CO codes about 66 days before the relief implementation date, which is when a new area of area in force is established. For 257, that is this Saturday.
Walsh says that some service providers like to request “great numbers” such as 777, 377, 277 and numbers in the series of hundreds, such as 700, 500 and 200.
What happens to the old?
The CRTC decided to add the 257 area code to the BC mixture because the possible telephone numbers within the existing area codes in the province have begun to run out.
The new area code will be implemented through the “distributed superposition method” where new codes are issued to the same geographical area as pre -existing codes, which means that customers do not have to change their numbers.
With this new area code, Millions of new telephone numbers It can be created, according to the Telecommunications Alliance, a group of the main telecommunications service providers in Canada that have joined forces to inform the public about the introduction of new area codes.
