Jamie Mason <jmason@utcs.utoronto.ca> (04/30/91)
Well folks, it's official news now, 416 *will* split in two years.
From a Bell Canada pamphlet delivered with the phone bill:
=================
4 1 6
Area Code 416 is stretched too far!
9 0 5
October 4th, 1993, 905 will relieve the tension.
In order to meet the increasing demand for telephone ex-
changes and numbers, it will soon become necessary to split the
416 region into two area codes. This will enable us to continue
to provide you with the high level of service and reliability
you've come to expect from Bell Canada.
Beginning October 4th, 1993, Metropolitan Toronto will
retain the 416 area code number, and all other areas currently
served by 416 will switch to the new area code number 905.
This will mean a change in your dialing patterns when
calling into or out of 416 or 905. These examples provide simple
illustrations of how the change will affect you.
1. If you are placing a local call from 416 into the 905
area code, you will dial:
905 + the seven digit number
2. If you are placing a local call from 905 into the 416
area code, you will dial:
416 + the seven digit number
Of course there will be no long distance charges for
these calls, or changes in your local calling area.
3. However, if you are placing a local call and not dialing
into or out of the 416 or 905 area code, you will simply dial the
regular seven digit number of the party you are trying to reach.
=============
All the typos are mine.
Note that 416 has already switched to dialing 1-416-xxx- xxxx
for long distance calls *within* 416, so that exchanges which look
like area codes (x0x and x1x) can be used. This should have added 179
exchanges, or 1,790,000 new numbers. I guess that is just a kludge,
and not enough for the long run.
It seems strange to me that they will split the 416 at the
Metro Toronto municipal boundary, rather than at the edge of the
Toronto local calling area. Looking at a map of 416 territory, I
can see that the Toronto local calling area covers approximately 1/3
of the 416 area, but Metro Toronto alone covers only a small fraction
of that. The new 416 is going to be tiny, at least in terms of
geographic area, compared to the old 416 and the new 905.
This is a pity. I enjoyed being in the most overcrowded area
code on the continent. :-)
Jamie Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil> (04/30/91)
So you too will have ten digits (NPA + 7D) for local calls across the new 416/905 border. This is what you will hear for local calls across the new 301/410 border in Maryland, if you listen to the helpline at 800/477-4704 and punch in a prefix which will have local service across that border. But from downtown Toronto, you will have local service into 905? That's being handled differently from Maryland, where if you are local to Baltimore you go into 410, and if you are local to Washington DC you stay in 301.
gamiddle@watmath.waterloo.edu (Guy Middleton) (05/01/91)
In article <telecom11.319.11@eecs.nwu.edu> cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) writes: > But from downtown Toronto, you will have local service into 905? Yes, indeed. Calls to the cities just outside Metro Toronto (Scarborough, Mississauga, etc) are now local, and will remain so, but these cities will be moving to 905. So downtown-to-Mississauga would be dialed as 905-xxx-yyyy, but to somewhere else, further away in 905, would be dialed as 1-905-zzz-yyyy.
Mark Brader <msb@sq.com> (05/03/91)
> But from downtown Toronto, you will have local service into 905?
Yes. Area 416 will be precisely the Municipality of Metropolitan
Toronto. The local calling area from anywhere in Metro is the same,
and extends for some distance beyond the Metro boundary in all
directions (except south, of course, since Lake Ontario is there). As
usual, the area code split will not affect the local calling area.
Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.comNigel Allen <ndallen@contact.uucp> (05/05/91)
As Mark Brader <msb@sq.com> points out, area code 416 will serve precisely the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, which includes the cities of Toronto, York, Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York, and the Borough of East York. All these cities have been a single Bell Canada exchange, Toronto, for a good many years, although I prize my 1953 Toronto-area phone book which lists manual telephone numbers for Agincourt (then a rural community in northern Scarborough, now just icky suburban sprawl). Metropolitan Toronto is responsible for some municipal services, such as transit, police and ambulance services, while the area municipalities (Toronto city, North York, etc.) handle garbage collection, fire-fighting, etc. Anyway, the delightful coincidence about the new area code boundary coinciding with a political boundary brings with it a further coincidence: Since Canadian postal codes begin with a letter assigned by geography (A = Newfoundland and Labrador, B = Nova Scotia... Y = Yukon), and since Metropolitan Toronto postal codes all begin with M (I'm M6G 1V3) while the areas adjacent to Metro Toronto have codes beginning with L, the postal code boundary coincides with the new area code boundary. If your postal code begins M, you remain in 416; if you are now in 416 and your postal code begins with L, you switch to 905. I mention this because some U.S. readers observed that new area code boundaries in Maryland would not coincide with zip code boundaries. Nigel Allen ndallen@contact.uucp [Moderator's Note: This is about the same thing that happened here in Chicago. 312 is exclusive to postal code 606xx, while 708 is found in the 600, 601, 604, and 605xx areas. PAT]
Mark Brader <msb@sq.com> (05/07/91)
> Calls to the cities just outside Metro Toronto > (Scarborough, Mississauga, etc) are now local, and will remain so, but > these cities will be moving to 905. Harrumph. Scarborough is, of course, *in* Metro Toronto. In case anyone actually cares, the complete list of municipalities in the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and which will therefore be staying in 416 is: Borough of East York, City of Etobicoke (the k is silent, incidentally), City of North York, City of Scarborough, City of Toronto, and City of York. The last is not to be confused with the Regional Municipality of York, which includes all of the former County of York *except* Metro Toronto, and will be in 905. Names of municipalities eliminated in 1954 when Metro was formed, or in 1966 when it was reorganized, many of which are still used for postal address purposes, include: Agincourt, Don Mills, Downsview, Forest Hill, Islington, Leaside, Long Branch, Mimico, New Toronto, Rexdale, Swansea, Weston, and Willowdale. These ex-places will all remain in 416. If you have the postal address of a place, it will be in 416 if and only if its postal code starts with the letter M. (Ignoring any anomalies at the Metro boundary, that is.) Clear? By the 1991 phone book, the prefixes in Metro Toronto are as follows. Errors are mine. 461-3,5-7,9 means 461 462 463 465 466 467 469. 221-5,9; 231-7,9; 240-9; 250-3,5,6,9; 260,1,4-7,9; 281-9; 290-3,6-9; 321-4,6,7; 340,1,3,5,8; 350,1,3,9; 360-9; 391-9; 421-5,9; 431,8,9; 440-9; 461-3,5-7,9; 480-9; 490-9; 502-4,9; 510,2,5,6; 530-9; 581,3,5,6,8; 590-9; 601,3,4,9; 614; 620,1,2,6; 630,1,3,5,6,8; 650-4,6-8; 661,3,5,7; 674,5; 690,1,3-6,8,9; 724; 730,3,6,9; 740-9; 750-2,4-9; 760-3,6,7,9; 777,8; 781-5,7,9; 798; 860-9; 870,2; 920-9; 932,3; 941,4,7; 954; 960-9; 971-9; and 980-2. Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com
Tony Harminc <TONY@mcgill1.bitnet> (05/07/91)
> If you have the postal address of a place, it will be > in 416 if and only if its postal code starts with the letter M. > (Ignoring any anomalies at the Metro boundary, that is.) Except for companies like mine who plan to run an entire building (data centre) on FX lines across the boundary. So even though our data centre address is in Markham and has an "L" postal code, the phone numbers will all remain in 416. This brings up several potential glitches: what happens when someone dials 911 (ANI/ALI will show the address of our Toronto building where the PBX trunks are; callers trying to look up our number in the Markham directory won't find it (unless we pay for a listing there); etc. > << list of Metro Toronto prefixes deleted >> I wonder what's going to happen to cellular prefixes when the 905 split happens. Currently I don't think most cellular subscribers think too hard about exactly where their phone is based. Perhaps some Metro subscribers will discover that they've really been outside Toronto all this time. Tony Harminc (Reminder: only my eMail address is in Montreal; I'm in Toronto)
Dave.Leibold@f135.n82.z89.onebdos.UUCP (Dave Leibold) (05/09/91)
Some recent notes on 416/905 split postings... Nigel Allen <ndallen@contact.uucp>: > (I'm M6G 1V3) while the areas adjacent to Metro Toronto have codes > beginning with L, the postal code boundary coincides with the new area > code boundary. If your postal code begins M, you remain in 416; if > you are now in 416 and your postal code begins with L, you switch to > 905. Postal area M = new area 416 boundary is correct; however, the mapping of postal L = 905 will not be exact. Some postal codes in the Collingwood ON area begin with L, yet are in NPA 705 (to be confused with the new and adjoining NPA 905). Meanwhile, some of the farthest reaches of 416 have municipalities whose postal codes begin with N (southwest Ontario) or K (eastern Ontario). Dunnville is in 416, yet postal codes begin with N1A. Cobourg, also in 416, has postal codes beginning with K9A. Mark Brader: > By the 1991 phone book, the prefixes in Metro Toronto are as follows. > Errors are mine. 461-3,5-7,9 means 461 462 463 465 466 467 469. > <Toronto prefixes listed> Actually, there are many more prefixes than Bell Canada lists in its phone books. There are cellular ones like Cantel's 416-520; then there are pager ones like 416-379. Then there are various test exchanges that occupy space on the numbering plan. It seems likely that Toronto-based cell and page numbers will stay in 416; anything based outside is 905-bound. Bell is also notorious for errors in listing its prefixes. Notice that 416-226 prefix didn't get listed in the '91 Toronto directory, though it is supposed to be active. A 416 prefix chart should be in the Archives ... those in Toronto (or cellular or pager) will remain in 416 after 1993. Any other place name will go to 905. Some other notes about the split: - Pearson International Airport, serving Toronto, will be located in 905; travellers would have to adjust to the code split. - as for the 210 area code I have mentioned in previous posts, it still would have been a better assignment in many respects that 905; the aforementioned similarity with 705 to the north is one shortcoming; the longer rotary dialing needed for all those cross-boundary local calls (905 vs 210) is another (Bell Canada charges a significant monthly premium for tone dialing). Is 210 secretly taken for something already? - there is the "Taco Bell" effect of assigning Mexico's old area code. A recent Howard Johnsons motel guide still lists a Mexico City number with the (905) code, despite its official retirement as such. David Leibold replies: dleibold@attmail.com Dave Leibold - via IMEx node 89:681/1 Dave.Leibold@f135.n82.z89.onebdos.UUCP