New Brunswickers are getting an extra area code and that means they’ll have to start dialing three extra numbers every time they make a phone call – if they still dial a number the old-fashioned way that is.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced Thursday that the province will get a new area code – 428 – effective Nov. 21, 2020.
That means New Brunswickers will have two years to build up the strength in their fingers for all that extra dialing – or to program numbers into a phone so they can dial a number with the touch of a button.
The transition to 10-digit local dialing will begin Aug. 13, 2020, which means callers will be reminded to dial 506 before the seven-digit number even when making a local call, the CRTC said in a news release. Mandatory 10-digit local dialing will begin Nov. 14, 2020.
The CRTC says the decision to add an extra area code was made because the Canadian Numbering Administrator advised them that the remaining bank of available numbers with the 506 area code would be exhausted by February 2021.
