North American Numbering Plan (NANP) has allocated area code 613 to the city of Ottawa and its surrounding area in the eastern part of the Ontario province in Canada. It is one of the original 86 area codes that were assigned initially in the year 1947.
Later when numbers get exhausted in the region, an overlay code 343 was assigned in the same Numbering Plan Area (NPA) on 17th May 2010. The Canadian Numbering Administrator (CNA) also approved another overlay code 753 for the territory which got activated in March 2022.
In the original scheme of things, area code 613 was assigned to the entire region of Ontario leaving only the Golden Horseshoe area which got allocated the area code 416. This numbering plan has gotten split twice to date. The first was when the southwestern part of the area code 613 got clubbed with the western part of the area code 416 and together they got allocated a new area code 519.
This happened in the year 1953. And second, in 1957 when a large northwestern part of area code 613 got clubbed with the northern part of 519, and together they formed the area code 705. And since then, area code 613 is covering eastern Ontario. The whole territory is ranging from Deep River and Brighton and moves east to Saint Regis, Quebec.
The boundary of area code 613 has Ottawa’s twin city Quebec, Gatineau. Quebec has an area code is 819. However, the city of Ottawa and its former city Hull, Quebec (which now forms a part of the megacity of Gatineau) share the same local calling area.
As a result of this, you can still make a call from Ottawa to Hull only using a 7-digit dialing system. The Washington Metropolitan Area (WMA) also enjoys a similar situation in its three major jurisdictions – Washington, Virginia, and Maryland.
The population that gets covered by the area code 613 is about 2 million and most of it lives in the main city of Ottawa. The authorities have also implemented an exchange code protection scheme to preserve the 7-digit dialing system between the cities of Ottawa & Hull. Under this scheme, it was ensured that the two cities of the National Capital Region do not assign the same 7-digit telephone number.
This ensured that if a telephone number e.g. 1-819 was being used in Hull city, the equivalent 1-613 number could not be made in use anywhere else in eastern Ontario even if it is quite far from the NCR. The same applied to vice versa as well.
The area also got the 10-digit dialing system implemented mandatorily on 21st October 2006 and the exchange protection scheme in the NCR ended at that time. The only exception was the ‘dual availability’ scheme which was applicable for government numbers on either side of the river. This situation could have been avoided if authorities would have allocated some 1-613 seven-digit numbers available in the Ottawa-Hull cities to the other areas at a safe distance from NCR years ago.
Key facts about area code 613
Area:
Area code 613 covers mainly Eastern Ontario and Ottawa city in Canada.
Major Communities:
Bancroft, Brockville, Belleville, Cornwall, Carleton Place, Pembroke, Kingston, Smith Falls, Perth, and Trenton including other smaller communities in the Eastern Ontario
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 1st January 1947.
Other Area Codes for Ontario:
226 / 249 / 343 / 365 / 416 / 437 / 519 / 548 / 613 / 647 / 705 / 742 / 753 / 807 / 905