Area codes 587, 825, and 368 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the entire Canadian province of Alberta. They form an overlay with area code 403 of southern Alberta, and northern Alberta's 780. The complex overlay involving a total of five area codes in Alberta mandated ten-digit dialing throughout the province.
History
Prior to 1997, numbering plan area 403 comprised Alberta, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, as well as a very small western portion of what is today Nunavut (which split off from the Northwest Territories on 1 April 1999). In 1997, use of area code 403 was restricted to Alberta, with the territories receiving new area code 867.
In January 1999, the province was divided into two numbering plan areas. The northern two thirds of Alberta, including Edmonton, received area code 780, while leaving 403 to serve Calgary and southern Alberta.
The projected exhaust dates for area codes 403 and 780 were March and October 2009, respectively. In 1997, two area codes, 587 and 825, were reserved by Bellcore for Alberta.[1]
The first of the new area codes, 587, entered service on September 19, 2008, as an overlay for the entire province.[2][3][4] As a preliminary step, ten-digit dialling was introduced across the province on an optional basis on June 23. This became mandatory on September 12. On September 20, Telus Mobility began allocating telephone numbers starting in area code 587 in the Calgary area.[5]
Instead of the overlay, splitting 403 or 780, would have resulted in subscribers in portions of Alberta having to change telephone numbers for the second time in a decade. A similar step had been taken a year earlier in British Columbia, when area code 778 was converted into an overlay complex for the entire province.
On April 9, 2016, the province was overlaid with an additional area code, 825.[6]
As of January 21, 2022, the province is additionally overlaid with area code 368.[7][8]
Area code 568 is reserved as the sixth area code for the province since November 2022.[9]
Service area and central office codes
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