Area codes 519, 226, 548, and 382

The primary incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) in the overlay complex is Bell Canada, with numerous other small independent companies that covered vast tracts of rural Ontario.

Although it primarily accepted the industry proposal, the CRTC required a permissive dialling period of four months, with consistent network announcements to consumers, instead of the proposed two-month period.

On April 15, 2003, the committee recommended delaying the introduction of the 226 area code from February 19, 2005, to October 21, 2006, primarily as a result of updated forecasts of the exhaustion projections.

The CRTC in response developed a relief plan (Telecom Decision CRTC 2012-655) which set the framework for addressing the exhaustion and oversee the addition of an additional overlay number.

Each CLEC is allocated blocks of 10,000 numbers (corresponding to a single three-digit prefix) for every rate centre where it offers service, even in the smallest hamlets.