Area codes 902 and 782 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Area code 902 was one of the nine original North American area codes in Canada established in October 1947. Area code 782 was added to the numbering plan area in August 2014, to form an overlay complex in relief to prevent telephone number shortages.
Numbering plan area (NPA) 902 originally comprised the three Maritime provinces, with Newfoundland added shortly after it joined Canada in 1949. New Brunswick, along with Newfoundland, was assigned area code 506 in 1955. Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador) subsequently received a distinct area code, 709, in early 1962.
The incumbent local exchange carrier in the numbering plan area is Bell Aliant, which was produced from a merger that included Island Telecom Inc. (formerly Island Telephone, but both were informally shortened to Island Tel), Maritime Telephone and Telegraph (MT&T), New Brunswick Tel (NBTel) and NewTel Communications (NewTel).
In Canada, telephone numbering resources are allocated to competing carrier in blocks of 10,000 numbers, corresponding to a single three-digit central office prefix, in every rate centre in which the carrier offers new service, and every local interconnect region in which it intends to port existing numbers. While only 1.06 million people reside in numbering plan area 902, which provides 7.8 million possible seven-digit telephone numbers, the area code was projected to be exhausted by 2015.
In October 2012, area code 782 was announced for relief of 902 in an overlay configuration. Ten-digit dialing was mandatory in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as of November 30, 2014.[1] The decision to implement a bi-provincial overlay may have been unusual, but was made to spare residents in rural areas of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island the burden of having to change numbers. As a result, area code 782 was introduced on August 23, 2014.[2] As of August 23, a recorded message reminded callers that ten-digit dialling would be mandatory on November 30.[1] Central office codes in 782 were made available to telephone service providers on May 30, 2014, with numbers being assigned to customers once ten-digit dialing was activated.[1]
Area code 851 was reserved as a third area code for the region in November 2022.[3]
The numbering plan area is unusual in that it spans two entire provinces, much like area code 867 is shared by the three Canadian territories: Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon. This practice is unique to Canada, but it was once practiced also for the Caribbean island states.
Premium services in the numbering plan area are provided with central office code 976: 1-902/782-976-xxxx.
