Area codes 514, 438, and 263 are telephonearea codes of theNorth American Numbering Plan (NANP) forMontreal and most of its on-island suburbs, specifically theIsland of Montreal andÎle Perrot in the Canadian province ofQuebec.
Area code 514 was one of theoriginal North American area codes assigned byAT&T in 1947. The original numbering plan area (NPA) was split twice: in 1957 to createarea code 819 and in 1998 to createarea code 450. In 2006, the entire remaining 514 area was assigned a second area code, 438, in anoverlay plan that madeten-digit dialing mandatory in the Montreal area. Area code 263 was added to the overlay in October 2022.
The incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) in the service area isBell Canada. The major competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) areVidéotron,Telus, andRogers.
When Montreal's local calls were handled manually byoperators, the caller requested the destination by name, before the first (four-digit) local telephone numbers were assigned in July 1881. In 1898,exchange namesMain,Westmount,Uptown, andEast, were added before the number. The initialrotary dial exchange,Lancaster, was deployed on April 25, 1925.[1][failed verification] Subscribers dialled two letters of an exchange name and four digits (2L+4N) and so "Lancaster 1234" was dialled as LA-1234 (52-1234).[2]
Theinitial area codes were created in 1947 asrouting codes for operator-assisted calls. Quebec andOntario were the only provinces that received multiple area codes. Quebec was split between area codes 514 and418. Area code 514 was originally assigned to the entire western half of Quebec from the Canada–US border to theHudson Strait. The area nominally included several remote areas in the far northern portion of the province that at the time did not have telephone service. When theBell System implementeddirect distance dialing (DDD) for content-wide service using a seven-digit local telephone number, prefixed by a three-digit area code, Montreal and Toronto, the largest Canadian cities, still used six-digit (2L-4N) numbering plans. Between 1951 and 1958, telephone numbers were lengthened by adding one digit (2L-5N) to be compatible.[3] Numbering plan area code 514 was split in 1957 to createarea code 819 for most of western Quebec, fromEstrie (Sherbrooke) to theOntario border, with the unserved far northern portion nominally added to 418 (and later moved to 819). Area code 514 was reduced to the region surrounding Montreal.
That configuration remained unchanged for 41 years. In 1998, theoff-island suburbs (Laval,Montérégie, etc.) receivedarea code 450, which now completely surrounds 514. That left 514 as the Island of Montreal and a few surrounding smaller islands, which makes it one of the six pairs ofdoughnut area codes in the numbering plan and one of two in Canada, the other being Toronto'sarea code 416.
The 1998 split was intended as a long-term solution to a shortage of available numbers in Canada's second-largest toll-free calling zone. However, within less than a decade, 514 was close to exhaustion because of the proliferation of computer, pager, and cell phone technologies. The problem was exacerbated by Canada's inefficient system of number allocation. Unlike the United States, Canada does not usenumber pooling as a relief measure. Everycompeting carrier is assigned blocks of 10,000 telephone numbers, which correspond to a single central office prefix, in every rate centre in which it plans to offer service. Once a telephone number is allocated to a carrier and rate centre, it cannot be reused elsewhere, even when a rate centre has more than enough numbers to serve it. That resulted in thousands of wasted telephone numbers. Many larger cities have multiple rate centres, which have never been amalgamated. Montreal is an exception since it is Canada's second-largest rate centre.
The number allocation problem was not as severe in Montreal as in other areas of Canada since numbers tend to be used up fairly quickly. However, numbers from the suburban areas to Montreal could not be reassigned, and it became apparent that the area needed another area code. On November 4, 2006, numbering plan area 514 was overlaid with area code 438, which requiredten-digit dialing for all subscribers in the Montreal area, even for local calls. By then, overlays had become the preferred relief measure in Canada, as they affect existing subscribers the least and provide a workaround for the number allocation problem. No area codes have been split in Canada since 1999.
Area code 438 was considered for overlaying 450 as well, but a later decision determined instead that 579 would be the overlay code.[4]
In February 2017, area code 263 was reserved as the third area code in the region, and was placed in service on October 22, 2022.[5]
A few westernMontreal neighbourhoods were never combined into the main Montreal rate centre and therefore have a reduced subset of the Montreal local calling area.
| North:354/450/579 | ||
| West:354/450/579 | 263/438/514 | East:354/450/579 |
| South:354/450/579 |