There are so many phones in Nova Scotia, the phone companies are running out of numbers, which means the province will soon have a new area code.

For 65 years, everyone in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have used the area code 902, but now the two provinces are running out of number combinations, in part because of the soaring popularity of cell phones.

It hasn't been decided exactly how this change will be implemented, but an entire organization is dedicating its time to figure it out.

"It's very complicated," says Glenn Pilley of the Canadian Numbering Administration. "We have reams of regulations and guidelines to follow to come to this process."

One option would be to change the area code for some residents, depending on where they live. Prince Edward Island doesn't have enough people to get its own area code.

"Businesses will have to contact all of their clients so that they know where they are, because if somebody dials 902 and they have the new phone number, the call will not go through of course," explains Pilley. "Of they'll get somebody else…and they go ‘oh, I don't know where they went,' and they hang up and they go look for a new supplier."

Before cell phones came along, there were only 10 area codes in Canada. That number has increased to 31 and it will rise again, once Nova Scotia gets its new digits.

Another option is to assign the new area code to only new phone numbers.

"For me it makes sense if you get a new phone, you get a new area code," says one Halifax resident. "But if they change the number that you have, that doesn't sound so right."

Either way, creating a new area code will likely create confusion. Pilley says even deciding on the new area code will be a complicated process.

"There's a mathematical process that we follow."

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell