[SteveToms]

- Remembering a phone number is about to get a little trickier -- Albertans will soon have to dial 10 digits every time they make a call.Regardless if it's a local or long distance call, everyone in the province will have to dial area codes 403 or 780 before the number. And on Sept. 12, a new area code, 587, will be added to future telephone numbers across Alberta.
Starting June 23, everyone who dials a number without an area code will hear a reminder to add the three extra digits next time before a call is connected.
"Alberta's running out of phone numbers," said Telus spokesman Shawn Hall. "If we didn't add a new area code by early next year, there are communities that would run out of phone numbers to use."

The decision to add the 587 area code provincewide was made to avoid forcing any

region of the province to change the area code it is used to.

Note, I think this should go here, sorry if wrong
Hall said the explosion of wireless communications devices -- such as cellphones, BlackBerries and pagers -- has eaten most of the available telephone numbers.
He suggested companies and residents start reprogramming their telephone systems as soon as possible.

The change to 10-digit dialing has been made in Vancouver, across Ontario and in many
regions of the United States.
Quebec and the rest of B.C. will institute new area codes this year.
Telecom industry experts say area codes are rapidly being exhausted across North America and predict that by 2030, most major cities will be using as many as 13 digits to make simple calls.
Marc Tremblay, vice-president of Leger Marketing, a national firm that completes thousands of phone calls to conduct polling work and marketing research, said it shouldn't take long to adjust to the new

system.
"It's a bit of an inconvenience for people for the first week or so and then they forget about it," said Tremblay.
"It's not a big deal. It's happened in other parts of Canada and the world. It's the way things are going."

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...5058b8e&k=3740