Area codes 902 and 782

Coverage area

902/782 is unusual as it covers two entire provinces, much like area code 867 is shared by the three Canadian territories: Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.

No area code has ever covered two entire US states. Other area codes cross provincial or state boundaries on a very limited basis, including:

Area code 809 originally was shared by most Caribbean islands, with exceptions of Cuba, Haiti, the Netherlands Antilles, and the French West Indies, but now serves only the Dominican Republic. 809 since has been overlaid with 829 and 849.

Overlay

In 2005, the 902 telephone market was the most competitive telephone area code in North America when EastLink became the first cable company to offer local telephone service over a fibre optic network in North America in 1999.

Canada uses a very inefficient scheme for allocating numbers in which every competing carrier is allocated blocks of 10,000 numbers in every rate centre in which it offers new service and every local interconnect region in which it intends to port existing numbers. There is no number pooling and rate centres are typically not amalgamated when the corresponding municipalities disappear. It is not uncommon for a Yarmouth-sized town (6761 people, as of 2011) to be allocated 150,000 numbers on various carriers. While there are only 1.06 million people in the 1-902 area code, and (theoretically) 7.8 million possible seven-digit telephone numbers, the area code was projected to be exhausted by 2015.

In October 2012, a relief area code was announced, 782, which will overlay the entire 902 area. Ten-digit dialing has been mandatory in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island since November 30, 2014. The decision to implement a two-province-wide overlay may have been unusual, but was made to spare residents in more rural areas of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island the burden of having to change their numbers.

As a result, a 782 area code was introduced on August 23, 2014. A recorded message reminding callers that 10-digit dialing would become mandatory on November 30 was activated on August 23. Exchanges in 782 were made available to telephone service providers on May 30, 2014, with numbers being assigned to customers once 10-digit dialing was activated.

Communities included

Nova Scotia

Prince Edward Island