As the city of Ottawa grows, it will be adding a third area code for numbers from the National Capital Area.
The Telecommunications Alliance, a consortium of Canadian service providers, has announced that it will begin using the 753 area code for phone numbers in Ottawa and Eastern Canada. Beginning in March, newly created numbers in the region may use the 753 code, instead of the more familiar 613 and 343.
The new area code has not been used before and is designed to meet the growing need for new phone numbers created by population growth in Ottawa and surrounding areas, as well as the rise in cell phones and businesses, which often list phone numbers through poster printing and other advertising to capture the increasingly important delivery market.
The 753 area code comes just 12 years after the Telecommunications Alliance introduced the 343 code to accommodate increased demand. Other eastern Ontario areas currently covered by the 705 and 249 area codes will add 683 this year. Adding a new code allows for more than seven million new unique phone numbers to be added. The change will only affect people and businesses looking to create a new number, and will only be brought in once there is no longer a sufficient supply of numbers in existing codes.
Ottawa and the surrounding area will introduce the 753 area code beginning on March 26.
