Area Codes

T-Shirt inspired by Toronto area code 416. Before deregulation of the Telephone system, Toronto's area code 416 had what is believed to be the largest geographical local free calling area of any city in the world. Meaning if you made a phone call from within the boundaries of today's City of Toronto, you could call as far away as Oakville or Ajax without incurring long distance charges.

Due to mismanagement and hoarding of telephone number prefixes (416-NXX) by incumbent phone companies after deregulation, Toronto ran short of assignable phone numbers. We technically did not run out of phone numbers, consumers just didn't get numbers from cell phone, pager, voice mail and local phone companies who had decided to keep numbers unassigned at the time.

To alleviate the emergency, area code 905 which originally serviced the Mexico City Federal District in Mexico, was repatriated by NANPA and then reassigned for use in Canada.

Bell Telephone then decided to Split area code 416 into 416 and 905 and ran a memorable ad campaign with the tagline, "...is it..area code four-one-six..orrrr...nine! o! five!!" almost a year in advance of the forced 10 digit dialling we all are now used to. Bell's awareness campaign had an air of the later Y2K Problem about it.

The next number exhaustion emergency resulted in Toronto getting an Overlay area code of 647. Since we already had 10 digit dialing in place technically, it was more socially acceptable and financially cheaper to simply place another area code on top of the geographic boundaries of the 416 area code which also co-incides with the boundaries of the amalgamated city of Toronto.

Initially 647 was confined to new cell phone and pager number assignment, however as newer players entered the local phone landline market, those companies began offering 647 phone numbers.

There was a stigma initially of getting a 647 number, but this has lessened somewhat. Still when talking about Toronto, people stick to saying 416 as shorthand for Toronto, rather than saying 647.   Further "The 6" (or "The 6ix") as a nickname for Toronto may be based on these area codes or the original six boroughs that comprised Metropolitan Toronto.

With recent growth in the Greater Toronto Area, area code 905 got its own overlay area code 289.