Intended as a long-term solution, the proliferation of telephone service in the area required additional central office code relief within only four years.
Telus and other carriers wanted to spare their Vancouver Island customers the expense and burden of changing telephone numbers for a second time in a decade.
[5] Overlays have become the preferred method of relief in Canada, and no area codes have been split in the country since 1999.
As of June 23, 2008, ten-digit dialing became mandatory across British Columbia; attempting to use only seven digits triggers an intercept message reminding callers of the rules.
[6] Within another four years, 604, 250, and 778 were close to exhaustion once again, requiring the addition of area code 236 for the province on June 1, 2013.