By Sara Miller
Toronto and GTA residents will have a new area code effective March 25.
COURTESY Flickr
Some Toronto residents will soon be dialing a new area code since the city is adding a third number to meet demands of surging smartphone and tablet use.
Toronto will add the code 437 to the current 416 and 647 area codes starting on March 25. Other regions of the GTA, which currently use 905 and 289, will also get new phone numbers starting with 365.
The Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunication Commission announced in 2011 that new area codes would come into effect within two years due to the shortage of phone numbers.
Director of the Canadian Numbering Administrator Glenn Pilley told Humber News on Thursday new area codes are needed to keep up with the surge of people using devices such as smartphones and tablets.
“For example, there are apps that allow you to do long distance through the internet and there are also apps for sending texts over the internet,” he said.
“These apps usually have numbers associated with them, so there are people with cellphones that have one to three telephone numbers associated with it.”
Do the new numbers mean anything more than just digits to dial?
Toronto Numerologist, Gordon Spowart said the new area code 437 is ideal for Toronto.
“The number 4 means a solid foundation and trustworthiness, 3 means artistic creativity and intellect and 7 means spirituality and analysis. It all totals to 14 which reduces to the single digit 5 by addition,” Spowart said.
“The number 5 is regarded as the center of the universe and it contains a little bit of the qualities such as diversity and freedom of the other 8 numbers that surround it. And isn’t that what Toronto is all about?”
Numerologists study the mystical and relationships between single digit numbers one to nine. If the number is large, the digits are added together to adjust the result of the digit cycle.
Phone numbers assigned in Toronto after March 25 will still have the current 416 and 647 codes until it runs out.
New area codes will also be introduced in several other regions in Canada, including Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and Nova Scotia.
Current phone numbers will not change.