Area codes 514, 438, and 263

The incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) in the service area is Bell Canada.

The major competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) are Vidéotron, Telus, and Rogers.

Area code 514 was originally assigned to the entire western half of Quebec from the Canada–US border to the Hudson Strait.

When the Bell System implemented direct distance dialing (DDD) for content-wide service using a seven-digit local telephone number, prefixed by a three-digit area code, Montreal and Toronto, the largest Canadian cities, still used six-digit (2L-4N) numbering plans.

The 1998 split was intended as a long-term solution to a shortage of available numbers in Canada's second-largest toll-free calling zone.

However, within less than a decade, 514 was close to exhaustion because of the proliferation of computer, pager, and cell phone technologies.

Every competing carrier is assigned blocks of 10,000 telephone numbers, which correspond to a single central office prefix, in every rate centre in which it plans to offer service.

By then, overlays had become the preferred relief measure in Canada, as they affect existing subscribers the least and provide a workaround for the number allocation problem.