History Area codes 514 and 438

bell exchange, montreal, late 1890s

montreal s local calls handled manually operators; called party requested name before first (four-digit) local numbers assigned in july 1881. in 1898, exchange names ( main , westmount , uptown or east ) added before number. initial rotary dial exchange, lancaster , deployed april 25, 1925. subscribers dialled 2 letters of exchange name , 4 digits (2l+4n), lancaster 1234 became la-1234 (or 52-1234).

the initial area codes created in 1947 routing codes operator-assisted calls. québec , ontario provinces received multiple area codes. quebec split between area codes 514 , 418. 514 covered entire western half of quebec, canada–us border hudson strait. area nominally included several remote areas in far northern portion of province which, @ time, didn t have telephone service. first bell system direct distance dial call made in 1951, englewood, new jersey alameda, california, using system based on fixed-length area codes plus seven-digit local numbers. montreal , toronto, largest canadian cities, 6 digits (2l+4n) @ time. between 1951 , 1958, numbers lengthened adding digit (2l+5n) in preparation deployment of direct distance dialling. 514 area code split in 1957 create area code 819 of western quebec, estrie (sherbrooke) ontario border, then-unserved far northern portion nominally added 418 (and later moved 819). 514 reduced region surrounding montreal.

despite montreal s rapid growth in second half of 20th century, configuration remained unchanged 41 years. in 1998, off-island suburbs (laval, montérégie, etc.) became area code 450, surrounds 514. left 514 island of montreal , few surrounding smaller islands.

the 1998 split intended long-term solution shortage of available numbers in canada s second-largest toll-free calling zone. within less decade 514 close exhaustion once again due montreal s rapid growth , canada s inefficient system of number allocation. unlike united states, canada not use number pooling relief measure. every competing carrier given access blocks of 10,000 numbers—corresponding single prefix—in every rate centre, no matter how small. resulted in thousands of wasted numbers, problem exacerbated proliferation of cell phones. while smaller rate centres don t need many numbers, number can t allocated elsewhere once assigned clec , rate centre. many larger cities have multiple rate centres have never been amalgamated. montreal exception; canada s second-largest rate centre.

by time, overlay area codes had become preferred relief measure in canada. 514 area overlaid area code 438 on november 4, 2006, making ten-digit dialing mandatory in montreal area. although number allocation problem has never been addressed, under current projections montreal not need area code until 2025.

area code 438 considered overlaying 450 well, later decision determined 579 overlay code area.