Area codes 705 and 249

Area codes 705 and 249 are telephone area codes that cover most of northeastern and central Ontario in Canada. 705 was initially created in 1957 by the North American Numbering Plan (NANPA) from portions of the area covered by area codes 613 and 519, and covered nearly all of Ontario north and west of the Golden Horseshoe. Area code 807, covering northwestern Ontario, was split from area code 705 in early 1962. Although 705 was not close to exhaustion at the time, creating a new area code was thought necessary in order to improve routing of calls from Manitoba and western Canada to northwestern Ontario. Greater routing efficiency has since been achieved with the implementation of highly computerized digital exchanges that were not available in the early 1960s.

On March 19, 2011, area code 249 was added as an overlay code. Since this date, all calls require ten-digit dialing. Previously, CNAC had considered "erasing" the 807-705 boundary and turning 807 into an overlay for all of northern Ontario--in effect, undoing the 1962 split. However, this was not recommended due to potential confusion.

The incumbent local exchange carriers in 705/249 are Bell Canada, Northern Telephone, Bell Aliant (Ontera), Eastlink, Nexicom, and some municipally-owned carriers.