Those moving to Toronto with their sights set on snagging a 647 or 437 area code might only have a limited time to do so, as a new one is being introduced.
On Wednesday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said it will be introducing 942 as Toronto’s new overlay code as of April 26, 2025.
The new digits will come a year before all existing 416, 437 and 647 phone numbers are expected to be exhausted, according to a 2022 CRTC report. Though the commission first predicted the current area codes would exhaust by January 2024, the CRTC said they will now exhaust by April 2025.
“Given that there are already two distributed overlay area codes in place over the original area code 416 in Toronto […] the Commission considers that the only logical method for providing further area code relief in these locations is the addition of another distributed overlay area code,” the decision reads.
The last time Toronto saw a new area code was back in 2011, when the CRTC introduced 437 into the mix. Then, in 2001, the 647 area code was introduced.
The first two area codes to ever be introduced in southern Ontario were 416 and 613 back in 1947.
