Western Canada's phone number landscape is about to dramatically change.
In addition to the introduction of a new area code for Alberta later this year - 587 - and the expansion of the 778 area code in British Columbia, landline and cellphone users in both provinces will have to adopt 10-digit dialing in order to make local calls.
In total, Alberta will be getting eight million new phone numbers while another eight million will be added to B.C.
Already in existence in the Vancouver region, 10-digit dialing will soon expand provincewide and simultaneously be introduced in Alberta. Both will officially make the 10-digit switch as of Sept. 12, and callers will have to dial their local area code, plus the seven-digit phone number, to complete a local call.
"The issue here is that we're running out of phone numbers," says Jeff Meerman, associate director of media relations for Bell. "Ten-digit dialing will ease the demand."
Population growth and increased cellphone demand, along with growing business needs, means that Alberta and B.C. are quickly eating up the existing phone number combinations.
According to the Ottawa-based Canadian Numbering Administrator (CNA), an organization that assigns all telecommunications numbering resources, available numbers in the 250, 403 and 780 area-code regions are close to running out.
In some cases, the introduction of portability for cellphone numbers unexpectedly caused the problem, as some cellphone providers that were sharing services in smaller regions had to be assigned landline numbers that were to be held in reserve.
Business users will have to adjust to more than remembering to dial the local area code.
Fax machines, modems, telephone system options and functions such as call forwarding, as well as home and business security systems, will need to be reprogrammed. Meanwhile, databases, business cards, stationery and even advertising signs on company trucks that carry a seven-digit phone number will have to be modified.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) does not expect the switchover to be a major concern.
"There are some headaches associated with 10-digit dialing - remembering it for a start; that took me about a year when we had it introduced in Metro Vancouver," says Laura Jones, the CFIB's Vancouver-based vice-president for Western Canada.
"We're not talking about unnecessary bureaucracy or red tape and business owners get that. It really didn't create too much frustration or confusion in the Vancouver area when 778 was introduced."
The need to reprogram alarm and security system panels for 10,000 customers is keeping Edmonton-based Telsco Security Systems Inc. president Bill Lazaruk busy these days.
"We've known about it for a year and we've been working on it for the last nine months," says Lazaruk.
About 10 per cent of his customers also have older equipment that will likely need to be upgraded or replaced.
"It is a lot of work and costing us a lot of money. We're dedicating four to five people to work on this project to make sure our customers are looked after," says Lazaruk.
His company is footing the bill for changes to the newer systems, which they can do seamlessly over the phone lines from the monitoring station. But even that can take up to 30 minutes to complete, depending on the individual system.
"We're hoping that the majority of our customers will be understanding and realize that it's not us who is causing the change and that we don't have the resources to cover the entire change," he adds.
This is not the first time that ADT Security Services, a unit of Tyco International and a provider of electronic security services to nearly six million commercial, government and residential customers throughout North America, has had to adapt to the introduction of 10-digit dialing.
"It's definitely an involved project based on the diversity of our customers - equipment that may or may not be compliant and making sure we do everything very thoroughly; identifying and going through our customer base one by one," says Kurt Wittkopp, ADT's Toronto-based director of service. "We are well ahead of schedule at this point."
ADT has a special team working on the switchover project and says it has not affected the company's regular day-to-day business. ADT customers will pay a fee for the change.
One sector where 10-digit dialing doesn't appear to be too large a concern is in the oilpatch, even though they have data-collecting equipment at remote sites that sends information over phone lines to firms' head offices.
"We have a huge number of remote communications that have to talk to us. But this is a really high-tech industry," says Greg Stringham, vice-president of markets and fiscal policy for the Calgary-based Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). "They (the phone companies) have given us enough significant notice that this should not be a problem as long as it can be communicated early."
In Alberta, the new 587 area code will be in effect provincewide. Called an overlay, this means the new code will co-exist with both the 780 and 403 area codes already in place for northern and southern Alberta.
This fall, new phone numbers will now start with the 587 area code, regardless of whether the person or business is located in Lethbridge or Fort McMurray, unless local area code numbers become available.
In B.C., the 778 area code - already in place in the Lower Mainland where it co-exists with its 604 counterpart - will be overlaid across the rest of the province, where it will similarly co-exist with its 250 equivalent.
The only numbers that will not change are 411, 611 and 911 or toll-free calls.
CNA officials expect that the one-two area code/10-digit dialing punch should mean no additional changes until around 2021 for Alberta and 2027 for B.C. At that point, there are two area codes that have been set aside, 825 for Alberta and 236 for B.C.
(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)
