Investoid

This is rather off-topic, but I needed to vent about the new that Albertans will have to perform 10 digit dialing for local calls next year. I won’t dispute the fact that we need more numbers for this province, but consider this:

1. We currently have about 3 million people living here, and up to 2 million possible numbers at the moment.
2. Assuming that we won’t go to exactly 1 number per person (including children), we need at least one more area code to handle the growth in population.
3. The last time they added an area code here (780), they split the province in two regions. Everyone north of Red Deer had to get a new area code. Thus is it technically possible to add another area code and switch over customers to the new code.
4. The new area code will be province-wide, meaning that the phone companies will have to sub-divide that code anyway to determine whether the call being made is local or not.

Why not just add 2 new area codes: one for Calgary and one for Edmonton. Switch over all customers to that code in those areas and use the additional numbers from the existing area codes for the rest of the province, keeping the same north/south split or adjusting it slightly to account for differential in population growth if necessary. Unless the cities hit 2 or 3 million (unlikely in the next 15-20 years), then based on current per-person rates and the growth in such per-capita figures, it is likely that this would solve the need for numbers for well over a decade.

I’m guessing that the solution they are using is cheaper to implement, and the CRTC just went along with their proposal without considering the merit of alternatives to the end consumer.

While most of the calls I make now are programmed ones (ie. dialed from a cell phone), I’m not looking forward to the day I have to ask for ten digit numbers when meeting someone new. It’s just another hassle. But thanks to the oligarchy that is the telecom sector, we are subject to their whims.

If you’re a Telus, Rogers or BCE investor, this is probably a good thing. They have the ability to pass along such measures with little impunity due to their stature in the marketplace. Like the banks, they enjoy special protection, although on their growth front (wireless), their protection is being threated by the possibility of new entrants getting spectrum.

Anyway, I might as well get used to the fact that I won’t be able to use the best pick-up line there is (”if I guess the first three digits of your phone number, can I get the rest?”), and prepare for ten digit dialing. (Kidding about the pick-up line, I’m happily married).