Area code 709
Area code 709 is the telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the entire Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. History. The first telephone system was installed in Newfoundland in 1885, but domestic long-distance calls within the Dominion of Newfoundland could be placed on a limited basis only in 1921. The first long-distance call from Newfoundland to Canada was made on January 10, 1939 by using a shortwave radio link operated by the Canadian Marconi Company in Montréal. Shortwave radio also carried calls from St. John's to London, England. After  Newfoundland joined Confederation with Canada, the first cross-province long-distance call was placed from St. John's to Port aux Basques in 1949. When planning was completed for the original NANP area codes in 1947, no provisions had been made to include Newfoundland in the continental numbering plan, which later became the North American Numbering Plan. The Newfoundland telephone system was entirely manual, and dial telephones came to St. John's only in 1948. Confederation with the Dominion of Canada was enacted in 1949. The Maritime provinces of Canada received the area code 902, which remains in use throughout  Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. New Brunswick and Newfoundland were split from area code 902 to area code 506 in 1955. In 1962, Labrador was split off and combined with Newfoundland to form a new numbering plan area, with own area code 709. Canadian direct-distance dial locations gradually increased over the next several years, beginning in 1958 with the country's largest cities, Toronto and Montreal. The area codes served mostly for operator routing purposes until customer dialing of long-distance calls became common in the 1960s. The incumbent local exchange carrier for area code 709 is Bell  Aliant, which is owned by Bell Canada, which was formed in 1999 as a result of a merger that included NewTel Communications (previously Newfoundland Telephone). There had been as many as nine companies in Newfoundland and Labrador until 1951. NewTel acquired the last independent company in 1988. Area code 709 is expected to be exhausted by 2024, when Newfoundland and Labrador will receive an overlay area code, and ten-digit dialing will become necessary in the province. Area code 879 has been reserved as the second code for the purpose of that overlay, but the relief has been deferred indefinitely . For now, that and three other Canadian area codes, 506, 807, and 867 still have not been overlaid and so use seven-digit dialling. The province has the prefix 988, hence regardless of any delays of any necessary overlay, ten-digit dialling will likely need to be implemented soon, as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has recommended using a three-digit code, most likely 9-8-8, for suicide prevention, after the United States Federal Communications Commission approved the same code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in that country.