Area codes 306, 639, and 474

Area codes 306, 639, and 474 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the entire Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Area code 306 is one of the original North American area codes assigned in 1947. Area codes 639 and 474 were added to the numbering plan area in creation of an overlay complex for the entire province in 2013 and 2021, respectively. The incumbent local exchange carrier is SaskTel.

History

When the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) created the first nationwide telephone numbering plan in the second half of the 1940s, the United States and Canada were divided into 86 numbering plan areas. Saskatchewan received area code 306 in 1947.

By the mid-2000s, area code 306 came under the threat of central office code exhaustion because of demand for telecommunication services from the proliferation of cell phones and other mobile devices requiring unique telephone numbers, particularly in Regina and Saskatoon.

In long-term nationwide planning in October 2010, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) tentatively reserved a group of new area codes for future relief of existing numbering plan areas that were expected to exhaust in the next 25 years; area code 474 was set aside for relief of area code 306 in Saskatchewan.

In early 2011, the Canadian Numbering Administrator (CNA) determined that area code 306 had experienced an unforecasted surge in telephone number demand and was at risk of exhaustion within three years. In response, the CRTC initiated relief planning measures.