Ready for a new area code for Montreal? Introducing 263, arriving next fall

Montreal — It may feel like just yesterday that the 438 came to la belle ville, making 514 phone numbers a hot commodity, but Montreal needs a new option, federal regulators said on Monday.

As of the 22nd of October, 2022, a third area code will be introduced to Montrealers: 263.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, better known as the CRTC, wrote in a decision published Monday that the two existing codes are almost used up.

There's been some confusion about just how close to the deadline they are.

In 2019, people studying the issue found that "area codes 438 and 514, which cover much of the region of Montreal, were projected to exhaust by November 2024," wrote the CRTC.

Those kinds of studies are done by an organization called the Canadian Numbering Administrator and then reported to the CRTC.

Then, two years later, there was a plot twist.

"On 4 June 2021, the CNA published a revised version of the results of a relief [study] conducted in January 2021 indicating that the projected exhaust date for area codes 438 and 514 had advanced to January 2022," wrote the CRTC.

Only five days later, the Canadian Numbering Administrator reversed that panicked position and put the projected deadline back to 2024, but in February.

The deadline had been moved up by almost three years.

"This placed area codes 438 and 514 in a jeopardy condition," said the decision.

Either way, those in charge moved fast at that point, striking a committee in early July to come up with a plan.

The number 263 had already been decided earlier, in fact. It was set aside as the "relief number" for Montreal in 2017, though at that point, people seem to have thought they had until 2027 before needing to bring it into use.

There was no explanation included about how regulators arrived at 263, but typically they will pick a new three-digit code that isn't similar to the existing ones in order to avoid confusion.