289 Area Code

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Area code 289 is allocated as an overlay code to the 905 area code in the NANP (North American Numbering Plan) for the golden horseshoe region surrounding Lake Ontario in the Canadian province of southern Ontario. This whole area for this numbering plan starts from Niagara Peninsula and covers Hamilton city and local municipalities of Peel, Halton, Durham & York.

It also covers some parts of Northumberland County. However, Toronto city does not come under the purview of this area code. The local incumbent exchange carrier in the region is Bell Canada.

For the same region, an overlay plan was designed at the beginning, and as a result area code, 905 was introduced in October 1993 after the split from the original area code 416. Then again in June 2001, the overlay code 289 was allocated to 905. This was the time when the 10-digit dialing system became mandatory in the region.

Due to the continuous increase in new telephone numbers, the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) had to introduce another overlay code 365 later which got operational in March 2013.

The original plan of the authorities was to introduce the ‘905 area code’ as a long-term solution. However, as opposed to the forecasts that were made, the area code 905 was on the verge of exhaustion years before it was planned. This was primarily because of the proliferation of new mobile phones and pagers. As a result, the CRTC had to govern an ad hoc committee for the route cause analysis and probable solutions to this issue.

There were various solutions proposed which included a geographical split of the area by municipalities (2 or 3-way split), a geographical split by concentric rings surrounding the city of Toronto, a dispersed overlay plan, or a realignment of existing numbering plan area (NPA) boundaries.

At last, the overlay plan got selected by the authorities as it clearly would have caused the least amount of disruption and it got the buy-in from all the carriers as well. The geographical split idea got dropped since it would have forced the customers to again change their existing numbers and that too within ten years. It would have also forced the reassignment of mobile numbers.

The 289 numbering plan area got approved by the CRTC on 15th August 2000. It also directed Bell Canada to implement the 10-digit dialing plan. The area code 289 was brought into service on 7th April 2001 and 9th June 2001 was the date when it got completely operational. Ultimately, the main area code 905 got exhausted in November 2005 which was about 12 years from its inception. The NPA 289 got all the new central office prefixes.

Key facts about area code 289

Area: The area code 289 primarily covers the southern region of Ontario, California, and its surrounding cities.

Major Cities: Welland, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Burlington, Schomberg, Claremont, Mount Hope, Malton, Oak Ridges, Newtonville, Richmond Hill, Brooklin, West Lincoln, Port Perry, Streetsville, Hampton, Unionville, Bowmanville, Hagersville, Aurora, etc.

Canada’s Dialling Code: The dialing code for Canada is +1.

Time-zone: The area code falls in the Eastern time zone and mainly follows EST (Eastern Standard Time). From mid of March time early November, when daylight saving time is observed everywhere, it follows the Eastern Daylight Time / EDT. The standard time zone remains as UTC/GMT – 5.00 hours and there is a daylight saving time of + 1.00 hours. During the daylight saving period, due to the time zone offset, the standard time zone becomes UTC/GMT – 4.00 hours.

Introduction date: It was introduced on the 7th April 2001.

Other Area Codes for Ontario: 226 / 249 / 343 / 365 / 416 / 437 / 519 / 548 / 613 / 647 / 705 / 742 / 753 / 807 / 905