Torontonians may soon be dialing a new three-digit prefix before their phone calls if telecommunications officials decide to present the city with a new area code.
As Toronto's rapidly-growing population inches closer to exhausting its phone-number possibilities, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is set to decide whether the city needs a new area code.
The proposed three-digit prefix is 437, a number that the Canadian Numbering Administration and phone companies decided on last spring. The area code was chosen from a pool of 50 numbers set aside in the early 1990s.
If approved, Torontonians could be dialing 437 by March 2013.
But many who lay claim to the city's classic 416 and 647 area code say they don't want to welcome a new combination.
"It would bother me a lot," one woman told CTV Toronto.
Ten years ago, Torontonians had to adjust to dialing 647 before phone calls. The prefix was introduced to combat the expanding number of residents snapping up city phone numbers.
Even then, some area code purists preferred to hold on to their classic 416 combination.
"I know a lot of people had a lot of issues, going with 647," one man told CTV Toronto.
Another Toronto man agreed and said that most residents covet the city's original area code combination.
"416 for sure, definitely in Toronto that's what you want to have," he said.
The classic area code has even been celebrated in a song entitled "416/905" by Toronto-based rapper Maestro.
Though some residents are reluctant to change their habits, others are indifferent to what they see as a necessary addition to the city's dialing habits.
"Out of everything in life it's one of the little tiny hassles, so it's not that big a deal," one man told CTV Toronto.
The CRTC said it will make a decision on the area code in the next few weeks.
With a report from CTV's Michelle Dube.
