Alberta will gain a new telephone area code next year as the province’s current supply of phone numbers continues to shrink, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced Tuesday.
The new code, 568, will apply across the entire province and take effect in June 2027. Regulators say the addition is needed because Alberta was on track to exhaust its available numbers, with a new area code required by February 2029 at the latest.
According to the CRTC’s report on the matter, an ad hoc industry committee is convened to study supply issues and recommend solutions before numbers actually run out. The Canadian Numbering Administrator, the body responsible for tracking phone number availability nationwide, oversees that process.
Kelly Walsh, program manager at the Canadian Numbering Administrator, said a new area code can theoretically supply close to 8 million additional phone numbers, though not all of them end up usable. Walsh explained that each area code is divided into 800 central office codes, and each of those codes contains 10,000 individual phone numbers — but some central office codes and some numbers within them cannot be assigned.
Alberta’s Existing Area Codes
Alberta currently has five area codes in service. The 403 code is used exclusively in southern Alberta, while 780 serves the north. The remaining three codes — 368, 587 and 825 — are shared across the province.
The most recent addition was 368, introduced in 2022. Before that, 825 was added in 2016, and 587 arrived in 2008. Walsh said the pace at which new codes are needed has been picking up, noting that most area code regions across Canada are seeing accelerated use of their number resources.
Why Demand Keeps Growing
Walsh said Alberta currently has as many as 39.5 million phone numbers available across its five area codes. Once 568 is added in June 2027, that total will climb to close to 46 million.
Part of the growing demand comes from the wide range of devices and services that rely on phone numbers beyond traditional calling. Walsh said numbers are assigned to fax machines, tablets with mobile internet access, VOIP applications, built-in vehicle emergency and connectivity systems, traffic lights, parking meters, vending machines and alarm systems. He added that the number of internet-connected services continues to expand, and many of them require a geographic phone number to operate.
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