Area code 867
Area code 867 is the area code for the three Canadian territories in the Arctic far north. It was created on October 21, 1997, from portions of two existing Canadian area codes (403 & 819). The digits were chosen to promote the theme "TOP of the world", as TOP spells 867 on a North American dial. [1] It has the largest land area of any area code in the North American Numbering Plan. The territorial extent reaches 3,173 km from Cape Dyer on Baffin Island to the Alaska border, and 4,391 km from the south end of James Bay to the North Pole. The largest distances between exchanges are 2,200 km from Sanikiluaq to Grise Fiord, and 3,365 km from Beaver Creek to Pangnirtung. Four different official time zones are observed within the area.
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History [edit]
Nearly all of the eastern Northwest Territories (along with most of western Quebec) were originally in area code 819[note 1] and served by Bell Canada until 1992. The Yukon Territory and the western portion of the Northwest Territories were originally covered by Alberta area code 403, and served by Northwestel.
Since then, Nunavut has taken over all of the former 819 portion of the Northwest Territories, plus part of the old 403 area. Area code 403 (Calgary, Alberta) has since been further split to create 780 for the northern two-thirds of Alberta, including Edmonton.
Prefixes coming into 867 area from either the 403 area or the 819 area stayed the same when their area code changed to 867, with one exception: 979 at Inuvik (coming from old area 403) was replaced by 867-777 because of a conflict with 979 at Iqaluit (coming from old area 819).
The only incumbent local exchange carrier in 867 is Northwestel, although until 1964, the geographic area now served by 867 did have up to five independent telephone companies, plus Bell Canada.[citation needed]
Northwestel's proposal for a new regulatory regime was approved for 2007, allowing 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 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), so additional central office codes are now required for competitive carriers wishing to offer local service. The expense of deployment is limiting deployment so far to Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Inuvik, Behchoko, Aklavik and Hay 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 Behchoko communities*).
* Behchoko has two separate exchange areas each with its own prefix, but Iristel's 292 prefix is overlaid on both using independent faciliites.
Places that use this area code [edit]
| Area code 867 covers all points in the three Canadian territories: |
To the extent that exchanges within the territories also serve some customers in adjacent provinces, 867 numbers can also be found in Fraser and Swan Lake[disambiguation needed], British Columbia (served from Carcross and Swift River, respectively), and Fort Fitzgerald, Alberta (served from Fort Smith). Excluded from this area code is Environment Canada's weather station at Eureka which uses 204 and 613. However, where the Alaska Highway repeatedly (nine times) crosses the BC-Yukon border, two highway lodges and area residents are served by Watson Lake (867) numbers, not the nearer Lower Post (250) exchange. No provincial exchange actually near the border serves any territories customer.
Each community has only one central office code, except for:
- Whitehorse, Yukon (867) - 322 332 333 334 335 336 393 455 456 633 667 668 689
- Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (867) - 444 445 446 447 669 688 765 766 767 873 920 988 999
- Aklavik, Northwest Territories (867)-375 878 978
- Behchoko, Northwest Territories (867) -292 371 392 492
- Fort Good Hope (867)-496 598
- Fort Providence (867)-373 699
- Fort Resolution (867)-376 394
- Fort Smith, Northwest Territories (867) - 621 870 872
- Hay River, Northwest Territories (867) - 775 874 875 876
- Iqaluit, Nunavut (867) - 222 223 877 974 975 979
- Inuvik, Northwest Territories (867) - 620 678 777 888
(Until 1978, only Whitehorse (633, 667, 668) and Hay River (396, 874) had more than one prefix; Hay River was reduced to one (874), while Yellowknife (873) had a second prefix (920) added. Iqaluit (979), Inuvik (777) and Hay River received second prefixes in the 2001-2004 period, and Fort Smith (872) in 2006.)
See also [edit]
Notes [edit]
- ^ The code 819 was applied to the eastern NWT and northern Quebec starting in the late 1970s as Direct distance dialing became available; from 1957 to the late 1970s, these areas were nominally part of area code 418; prior to 1957, they would have been regarded as part of area code 514, but there were no telephone services in the area prior to 1958.
References [edit]
External links [edit]
- CNA exchange list for area +1-867
- Natural Resources Canada, Polar Continental Shelf Project - Eureka Weather Station
- Area Code Map of Canada
| Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut area codes: 867 | ||
|---|---|---|
| North: Arctic Ocean, Country code +7 in Russia | ||
| West: 907 | Area Code 867 | East: Atlantic Ocean, Country code +299 in Greenland |
| South: 204, 250/778, 306, 705, 709, 780/587, 807, 819 | ||
| Alaska area codes: 907 | ||
| Alberta area codes: 403, 587, 780 | ||
| British Columbia area codes: 250, 604, 778 | ||
| Manitoba area codes: 204, 431 | ||
| Newfoundland and Labrador area codes: 709 | ||
| Ontario area codes: 226, 249, 289, 343, 365, 416, 519, 613, 647, 705, 807, 905 | ||
| Saskatchewan area codes: 306 | ||
| Quebec area codes: 418, 438, 450, 514, 579, 581, 819 | ||
