The single rate center of the city of Toronto in the Ontario province of Canada has been allocated the area code 437 as an additional overlay code to the original area code 416 and the first overlay code 647 in the North American Numbering Plan (also known as NANP). Area code 416 is among the original area codes that were assigned in the year 1947 by AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph Company). Later with time when the existing numbers got exhausted, additional area code 647 was introduced as part of the overlay numbering plan for the region.
The geographical territory of area codes 416, 647, and 437 have the incumbent local exchange carrier as Bell Canada. There are some other competitive local exchange carriers present in the area as well – such as Telus and Rogers along with a few independent providers.
The original area code 416 when got introduced in 1947, the dialing system used to be ‘2L+4N’ which meant the first two letters of the exchange name and then 4 digits of the telephone number. For example, if you needed to dial number 1111 for the exchange ‘Grover’, you needed to dial GR1111 or 471111. Later it got changed to ‘2L+5N’ in the year 1951.
The area code 416 got split twice, initially in 1953 when the western part of the area code 416 got combined with the southern part of area code 613 and formed a new area code 519. The balance area left in the 416 later formed the core of the Golden Horseshoe region. It continued to be operated till the 1980s and when authorities realized that the numbers will get exhausted soon, authorities took measures to tackle the problem. However, in 1993 the territory of the area code 416 got reduced to its existing size.
Within a few years, due to Toronto’s size, the numbers in the area were again on the verge of exhaustion. That is when the authorities formed the overlay numbering plan for the city and in the year 2001, the country got its first overlay code as 647. This was also when they implemented the 10-digit dialing system which needs to be a prerequisite for an overlay numbering plan.
However, within a span of the next ten years, both the area codes were again on the verge of exhaustion and that is when authorities planned to have an additional overlay code. Given this, the CRTC introduced area code 437 on 25th March 2013. Collectively these 3 area codes allocated about 24M telephone numbers to a single city with a population of about 2.5M.
The authorities also learned from the history and provisioned another overlay code 387 keeping in view the increase in demand for new telephone numbers in the future. As per the current forecast, this area code will not be required anytime before 2025.
The city of Toronto has the most area codes and the overlays technique has become one of the most preferred solutions to the issue of number exhaustion. This also proves as an easy resolution for the number allocation issue for the carriers.
Key facts about area code 437
Area:
Area code 437 is covering the city of Toronto in the Ontario province of Canada.
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 25th March 2013.
Other area codes in the Ontario province:
226 / 249 / 289 / 343 / 365 / 416 / 519 / 548 / 613 / 647 / 705 / 742 / 753 / 807 / 905