Area code 867

The +1-867 area code is the most expensive geographic calling area in Canada.[1] Iristel (the one major CLEC in the region) bills its subscribers in other area codes a 15¢/minute premium to call 1-867 numbers and charges a $20/year premium to issue a 1-867 number in-region instead of assigning the same subscriber any other Canadian area code.[2]

The digits were chosen to promote the theme "TOP of the world", as 867 spells TOP on a standard North American keypad. Also, when combined with the North American dialing code +1, it spells 1867, which is the year of Canadian Confederation.

It has the largest land area of any area code in the North American Numbering Plan. The territorial extent reaches 3,173 km (1,972 mi) from Cape Dyer on Baffin Island to the Alaska border, and 4,391 km (2,728 mi) from the south end of James Bay to the North Pole. The largest distances between exchanges are 2,200 km (1,400 mi) from Sanikiluaq to Grise Fiord, and 3,365 km (2,091 mi) from Beaver Creek to Pangnirtung. Four different official time zones are observed within the area: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific.

Originally, Yukon and the western portion of the Northwest Territories were covered by Alberta's area code 403, and served by a number of local companies that were eventually merged into Canadian National Telecommunications, a subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway. CNT's operations in the territories became Northwestel in 1979.

The eastern Northwest Territories were among the last areas of North America without telephone service. When area codes were instituted in 1947, this region was nominally part of western Quebec's area code 514. In 1957, these non-diallable areas were nominally shifted to eastern Quebec's area code 418. Bell Canada introduced telephone service in the eastern NWT in 1958. As direct distance dialing was rolled out in this area in the 1970s, the eastern NWT, along with a large swath of northwestern Quebec, was shifted to western Quebec's 819. Bell Canada sold its northern service territory to Northwestel in 1992.

Prior to the creation of 867, 403 and 819 were geographically the largest area codes in the North American Numbering Plan. 403 spanned more than one-ninth of the planet's circumference, while 819 spanned one-eighth.

Since the creation of 867, all of the former 819 portion of the Northwest Territories, plus that portion of the former 403 portion covering five exchanges, has become part of Nunavut. Area code 403 (Alberta) has since been further split to create 780 for the northern two-thirds of Alberta, including Edmonton.

All existing prefixes stayed the same with the change to 867, with one exception: the conflict between 403–979 at Inuvik and 819–979 at Iqaluit was resolved by changing Inuvik from 403-979 to 867–777. A minor programming glitch temporarily (for a few weeks late in 1997) allowed callers in the Inuvik area to dial 403-777 and reach Inuvik when it actually should have routed to Calgary, which is what appeared on customer's bills along with the higher rate.

Evolution of area codes in northern territories

Northwestel's proposal for a new regulatory regime was approved for 2007, allowing resale of local telephone service, but no competitors entered the market to avail themselves of the resale option. In 2011, facilities-based local service competition was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), so additional central office codes are now required for competitive carriers wishing to offer local service. The expense of deployment is limiting deployment so far to Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Inuvik, Behchokǫ̀, Aklavik and Hay River, four of which already have multiple prefixes. Communities that now have only one prefix are not likely to need a second prefix other than for local growth or the entry of a competitor (as in Aklavik and the twin Behchokǫ̀ communities, Rae-Edzo*).

* Behchokǫ̀ has two separate exchange areas each with its own prefix, but Iristel's 292 prefix is overlaid on both using independent facilities.

Area code 867 covers all points in the three Canadian territories:

• Northwest Territories
• Nunavut
• Yukon

Exchanges within the territories serve some customers in Fraser and Swan Lake, British Columbia (from Carcross and Swift River, respectively). Fitzgerald, Alberta is served from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.[3] On a section of the Alaska Highway which crosses the BC-Yukon border six times in 6 mi (9.7 km), two highway lodges and area residents on the Yukon side are served by Watson Lake (867) numbers, not the nearer Lower Post (250) exchange.

Ellesmere Island is the northernmost terrestrial point in Canada. On Ellesmere, conventional telephony is available at Grise Fiord (1-867-980-xxxx), population 130, but not at two remote government outposts further north: Eureka, Nunavut (80.1°N) is host to an Environment Canada weather station[4] and Alert, Nunavut (82°N) is a Canadian Forces Station.[5] The only outside communication to Eureka is via satellite;[6] the weather station lists various extensions of an Ottawa 613 federal number, an Iridium satellite phone or the Winnipeg 204 number of a main Environment Canada office.[7] As Eureka is at the northern limit of access to geosynchronous satellite signals, a string of military terrestrial UHF links extends the signal from "Fort Eureka" to CFS Alert.[8] There is a skeleton crew at each location which is reachable by Internet or telephone, but these links are satellite or military communication and do not use the area code 867 infrastructure.

• Area code 600, a rarely used non-geographic prefix which includes caller-pays satellite telephony in the high Arctic
• Telephone numbers in Canada
• Canadian Numbering Administration Consortium

• CNA exchange list for area +1-867
• Area code 867 on localcallingguide.com
• Natural Resources Canada, Polar Continental Shelf Project - Eureka Weather Station
• Area Code Map of Canada