B.C. getting new area code, 672, starting in May 2019

Canada's telecommunications regulator has announced British Columbia is getting a new 672 area code.

The new code is needed because the existing 604, 778, 250 and 236 area codes are expected to be filled with phone numbers by April 2021, said the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

The 672 code is slated to go into effect in May of 2019.

That should give phone companies enough time to put the new area code into rotation before the province runs out of phone numbers, the commission said.