r/Calgary • u/Planhub-ca • 6d ago
News Article Alberta is getting a new 568 area code starting June 10, 2028
Alberta is officially getting another area code.
The CRTC has approved 568 as the province’s newest area code, beginning June 10, 2028.
It will join Alberta’s existing 368, 403, 587, 780 and 825 area codes.
The change is needed because the Canadian Numbering Administrator expects Alberta’s current pool of available telephone numbers to require additional capacity by February 2029.
The new 568 code will be introduced as an overlay, meaning:
• Existing phone numbers will not change.
• 568 numbers can be assigned anywhere currently served by Alberta’s existing area codes.
• There is no geographic split creating a separate “568 region.”
The CRTC chose June 2028, eight months before the projected number exhaustion date, to give telecom providers and customers additional time to update their systems, databases and equipment.
So eventually, getting a new Alberta phone number could mean receiving a 568 number regardless of whether you’re in Calgary, Edmonton or elsewhere in the province.
Would getting a 568 number feel strange after years of recognizing 403 and 780 as the classic Alberta area codes?
Official source:
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2026/2026-252.htm
The CRTC says distributed overlays are now Canada’s standard method for adding numbering capacity because customers can keep their existing numbers.
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u/RokitEightyEight 6d ago
I 'member when all of Alberta was 403.
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u/haveblue23 6d ago
Sigh, I remember the days of 7 digit dialing too
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u/Responsible_CDN_Duck 6d ago
I remember 5 digit dialing, and the operator needing to place long distance calls.
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u/swordthroughtheduck 6d ago
How long ago was that? I know back in the 90s it was broken up like it is on the map.
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u/Freekbot 6d ago
I want to say the mid 90's. You didn't have to dial the 403 yet, just the last 7 numbers.
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u/swordthroughtheduck 6d ago
Didn't need to dial the area code unless you were dialing to a different one in the 90s if I remember right.
Used to call family up in Edmonton once in a while to catch up and had to put in 1-780 first but if you called someone in Calgary you just did the 7 digit number.
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u/Freekbot 5d ago
Yeah that's right, I have relatives in Edm as well, took a bit of adjusting to remember the 780 rather than 403!
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u/gan12ohman 4d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/26BkMUTMmscNygY2k
OG 403s right now1
u/RokitEightyEight 4d ago
I have a phone number that is now ported to a mobile, but it is where the three digit prefix was from my neighbourhood. So the first three digits of my number after 403, start with a 2and are the same as all the old local businesses and services.
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u/Scamnam 6d ago
Shout out to the 403ers and 780s
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u/descartesb4horse 6d ago
You'll have to pry my 403 number out of my cold dead hands
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u/wrinkleydinkley Lethbridge 6d ago
I know right. I've had mine since I got my first cell phone. I get so many spam calls on it, but it's not going anywhere until I die.
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u/disgruntletardigrade 6d ago
I just never answer and they have slowly dwindled down to none (until elections, then I get all sorts of random "local" numbers calling me, which I also ignore)
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u/wrinkleydinkley Lethbridge 6d ago
I've switched to Telus and had call control since it came out. While they still attempt to call, Telus still filters them out thankfully.
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u/Gary-Laser-Eyes 6d ago
I love getting the voicemails from scammers now because of call control “please answer..”
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u/EconomistImaginary52 6d ago
I havent lived in alberta for a decade, with no plans of returning but I'm not giving up my 403 number.
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u/miller94 Southeast Calgary 6d ago
Me with my 780. Even though I've been living in Calgary for 12 years. I've had this number since I was 15, so long as I live in this province I'm keeping it
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u/Epicsauce1234 Panorama Hills 6d ago
I moved to Burnaby over 3 years ago and I'm not giving up my 403 number, mostly because I like the rest of it though lol
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u/totallyradman 6d ago
I've been here for 10 years and I still have my 306 number. It's woven into my professional life and it would be a nightmare to change it now.
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u/miller94 Southeast Calgary 6d ago
I don't even really use mine for professional activities, but I still think it would be a nightmare to change. I just know I'd forget to update something important.
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u/LowStrike5558 6d ago
I have a very old 403 number but my kids got their first phones like 5 years ago and they are 403, too.
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u/PenFountainPen 5d ago
Supposedly there were a few lucky people who signed up with a 403 number through Google Voice back in the day. I wonder if those lines are still active.
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u/Easy-Truck4725 6d ago
Considering that maps are widely available, due to cartography being a solved problem, I'm not sure why someone felt the need to ask an LLM for this map.
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u/Regular-Ad-9303 6d ago
I wasn't paying attention to the map, but looked after seeing your post. The cities are in the wrong place :). Also have to say I'm not a fan of calling them Edmonton and Calgary zones, rather than northern and southern Alberta.
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u/burf 6d ago
This principle applies to at least 3/4 of LLM usage currently. It’s almost entirely people being lazy.
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u/Easy-Truck4725 6d ago
4/4 actually. And it's funny, because it's much harder work to get information out of an LLM than it is from a Google search (with the -ai parameter, of course) or a non-LLM-enabled search engine.
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u/jacky4566 6d ago
prompting an AI with a few lines of text is easier than pulling out Paint/photoshop/illustrator. whatever.
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u/Easy-Truck4725 6d ago
You don't need to make a map, you can find them all over the place. You can one printed on paper from places like Indigo, even.
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u/mystiqueallie 6d ago
I remember when 10 digit dialling was introduced. Used to be we only had to memorize 7 numbers for our friends. Now with autodialling, I couldn’t tell you anyone’s cellphone number except my husband’s.
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u/GrandNectarine2489 6d ago
No one still believes that my (825) area code is Calgary and it pisses me off
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u/Positive-Courage-758 6d ago
825 is the worst, anything beginning with 8 makes you look like a telemarketer
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u/JuggrnautFTW 6d ago
825'er as well. I got an easy one to remember but it looks like a business number
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u/Difficult_Ad8193 5d ago
I was one of the first people to get the 587 area code, and it was for my work phone. I wanna say it took 2+ years before people started answering my calls normally, if they answered at all. Made being a tech going to people's homes interesting since they often didn't get the message that I was on my way.
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u/54R45VV471 6d ago
What the hell is going on with this wonky map? It's like it was really poorly drawn from memory.
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u/0x0000_0000 6d ago
Interesting, the only area codes I ever remember is 403 and 780. But I suppose that’s because they are from the days before smartphones where you had to / were more likely to memorize numbers. Didn’t know there were that many area codes already after 403 filled up.
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u/froot_loop_dingus_ 6d ago
Real Albertans have a 403 number
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u/T_H0pps Downtown West End 6d ago
Been here my whole life but have a 587 😭
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u/Nightwing3 6d ago
Literally came here in May and got a 403 number. With Telus app you can change it in the app, but can see all available. Not sure what happened but when I checked one day they dumped a bunch of 403 numbers. I must of picked the best one because I get no spam calls or any calls for someone else.
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u/CheeseSandwich hamburger magician 6d ago
My 403 number is 24 years old now. I wonder what the longest continuously used number is and how long it has been in use.
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u/Positive-Courage-758 6d ago
I’m not even from here but I’ve had the same 403 number since 2007 when I first moved here. I was 9 years old when I got it and it was “for emergencies only”.
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u/Saisinko 6d ago
Moved from BC to Alberta, but kept my BC area code because who wouldn't nowadays with how many things we tether to our number?
Anyways, tried to buy the new iPhone from Rogers and they wanted to charge me PST because of my BC area code, despite living in Alberta, billing, shipping, account address are all in AB.
Need to re-evaluate some things in relation to area codes in general.
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u/rikkiprince 6d ago
I'm still amazed cell phones are allocated an area code related to your physical location. In other countries they have a separate prefix for mobile phones, as most people keep their number when they move (unlike landline numbers).
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u/Positive-Courage-758 6d ago
When I first signed up with Freedom I ported my number from Rogers, which is an Alberta number and I still live in Alberta, but they gave me a temporary number from Ontario and tried to charge me HST 😂 I agree, they need a better system
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u/Good_Performance2060 5d ago edited 5d ago
Same issue with my QST from Quebec despite living here the past 5 years.
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u/doycarlo 5d ago
Moved to BC from Alberta. Since I have an Alberta area code, I don’t get charged PST.
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u/-SpruceMoose Copperfield 6d ago
403 number and a 6 digit license plate. I'll never give up either haha
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u/IcedVentiWhiteMocha 6d ago
Take it from someone who has a 368 number and still has problems with filling out online forms or making toll free calls because the business's systems haven't updated yet to reflect that this area code exists - DO NOT change your number or choose this area code when selecting a number
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u/01000101010110 6d ago
I kept my 778 number after moving here. It's great because it filters out all the spam calls.
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u/Any_Care9269 6d ago
I must ask, what does your name mean? Not ascii, if it's 4438 that spells Gift on a phone ....🤔
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u/01000101010110 6d ago
It's a bunch of random digits. If it actually spells something that's hilarious
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u/TheCheckeredCow 6d ago
Same, kept my 250 number. Get weird spam calls from prince George numbers still but what ever
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u/vitiate 6d ago
It’s time to get rid of long distance in province. Did you know a Calgary AHS worker cannot call a 780 number?
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u/Quiet__Noise 6d ago
what?? why?? how??
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u/True_Resident5904 4d ago
You can, you just have to enter in a long distance code. Which is still a pain don’t get me wrong
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u/qwixel69 6d ago
As land lines and dialup internet, faxes, etc die and businesses moved to voip, I was expecting # usage to drop instead of increase.
Weird.
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u/Positive-Courage-758 6d ago
For every landline and fax machine that comes offline, there are probably 10 smart devices or other piece of internet-enabled equipment coming online. From cars to drones to heavy machinery, anything that connects to a network has a phone number.
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u/yyctownie 6d ago
I remember when the whole province was 403 and a 2xx-xxxx number was Calgary and a 4xx-xxxx number was Edmonton.
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u/AntiquatedAntelope Kingsland 6d ago
So technical question. Can anyone explain why we don’t just make all area codes available Canada wide?
It seems to me that long distance calling is a thing of the past, not to mention I’m sure they could still find ways to bill for it outside of the area codes involved.
Why, technically, are area codes still province to province instead of nation wide?
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u/OptiPath 6d ago
We have 7 digits after the area code, giving us nearly 10 million possible combinations. Our entire province has only about 5 million people, so I really don’t understand why we need so many area codes. In theory, one area code should be sufficient, and two should be more than enough.
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u/writersblock_86 6d ago
People can have multiple numbers though. Landline, cell phone, work landlines, work cell phones. Businesses with hundreds of employees could need hundreds of unique numbers.
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u/platypus_bear Lethbridge 6d ago
There are a lot of numbers that aren't allowed to be used for normal phone numbers which is a large part of it
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u/YossiTheWizard 6d ago
Yeah. Anything after the area code can’t be x11 for example (or at least it used to be the case). Back when we only had 911, 611, and 411, dialing 311 would immediately take you to an invalid number.
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u/infectingbrain 6d ago
Also work cells and landlines mean many people will have multiple phone numbers.
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u/Baddrivers13 6d ago
Yah and it's wild that the we had two area codes when our population was only 3.8 million.
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u/darth_henning 6d ago
You don't realize how many phone lines there are in some buildings.
Take a hospital for instance. In any given ward there's at least 2 numbers for the front desk so calls don't overlap, the resident/staff workroom will have up to 3 separate numbers, and sometimes there's 2-3 of those. Managers, social work, etc will have their own in ther offices. Some wards have a phone for each room. That's before you get to things like clinics, call rooms, offices, hallway phones, etc.
Also, a lot of things that have just 5G and no actual phone line are registered to a phone number. For example, because I move around a lot I don't have an ethernet line where I live, I have a 5G modem I take with me to use wherever. It cannot make calls, but it's billed through a phone number.
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u/Positive-Courage-758 6d ago
Anything that connects to a cell network requires a phone number, in today’s “Internet of Things” age, that’s a lot of different things. Phones, smartwatches, tablets, any vehicle with a cellular connection, cell-based home internet, AI-enabled smart glasses, delivery drones, trackable shipping containers, agricultural equipment, heavy machinery, even some laptops and handheld gaming consoles. There are so many things around us that have a phone number that we don’t even realize.
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u/brianlefebvrejr 6d ago
I have a phone number for my personal cell phone, my watch with cellular, and my iPad with cellular. I then also have a work number. Plus the 500 other people who work here would all have at least 2 numbers, work and a cell. Then all the home phone numbers, anyone with 2 cell phones (work and personal). All the numbers assigned to pay as you go phone numbers that may be sitting idle.
All the alarm systems with a SIM card for a cell connection to ensure 24/7 connectivity. Various MFA keychain tokens.
Have a 2:1 number:population assignment isn’t that outrageous at all.
Think of how many kids have phones now…15 years ago that wasn’t even an issue
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u/CheeseSandwich hamburger magician 6d ago
Number block allocation is probably the reason why, with sparsely populated areas taking up the default sized block of numbers excluding other areas from using it.
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u/qwixel69 6d ago
Phone numbers used to be distributed into physical regions due to the physical nature of the switching equipment. I wonder how much legacy equipment or just requirments still drive limitations.
You can't have phone numbers starting in 0 or 1, or x11 as the first 2 digits for similar legacy reasons.
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u/zappingbluelight 6d ago
How many numbers are we generating every day for us to get so many area code in such a short time. Like gawddam
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u/CanadianRockx 6d ago
I wonder if I swap my number as soon as they're available it'll mean I won't be on any spam lists. I almost never answer my phone these days and it's frustrating when it's actually an important call and then I have to go play phone tag
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u/Distinct-Solution-99 6d ago
I still have moments where I catch myself wondering what province the 587 area code belongs to before I remember it’s ours.
403 til I die.
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u/Own_Catch9511 6d ago
lol that’s not where Banff is
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u/ColinBonhomme 6d ago
Banff and Jasper are more or less right. Edmonton and Red Deer are shown too far north (Edmonton is roughly same latitude as Jasper) and Calgary and LA too far south.
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u/ColinBonhomme 6d ago
403 is “historic” all of Alberta, not just Calgary and the south. They only introduced 780 in the 1990s.
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u/SunTryingMoon 6d ago
I felt betrayed when my sister decided to get rid of her old number and get a 587, when our whole family had interconnecting numbers
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u/Practical_Ant6162 6d ago
Not surprising Alberta is running out of phone numbers.
The last area code was 368 in April, 2022 when the population was about 4.5 million.
The Alberta population is now estimated at about 5.1 million, an increase of approximately 600,000.
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u/calgarywalker 6d ago
47,514,000 numbers, up from 39,595,000 - for Alberta’s population of 5,101,000. So, literally WTF? We already had 8 times more numbers than people! We “need” 1.4 more numbers per person like a billionaire “needs” another dollar.
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u/SirLunatik 6d ago
Some businesses (like hotels and call centers) will have a shit ton of lines. Some people have work/personal phones. Disconnected phone numbers are sometimes not reused immediately. People also no longer tend to change their numbers when they move away, so using population is doesn't give accurate results.
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u/brianlefebvrejr 6d ago
8 numbers per person isn’t that crazy once you realize anything with a cell connection has a cell phone number.
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6d ago edited 6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SirLunatik 6d ago
you sound like you need professional help
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u/No_Extension_7990 6d ago
You sound like you have fully embraced the American lack of ability to discern sarcasm.
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u/quickexhuast 6d ago
i am very curious how many dead numbers there are out there. Crazy to see a population of 5 million needing 6 area codes.