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Ten digit dialing coming to islands

Come summer, our fingers will have to do a little more walking.On June 23rd, all BC residents outside Metro Vancouver will start to get gentle reminders to dial ten digits instead of the usual seven.It's because area code 250 phone numbers are running out. "If we don't do something soon, numbers would run out by next year" said Shawn Hall of Telus. "The numbers are rapidly being used up by an explosion in the use of wireless devices, BlackBerries, pagers, home alarm systems and cell phones, which are often used for more than one member of a family."Until now, the 778 area code has been assigned to cell phones, but that might change as local numbers in each community run out. In Haida Gwaii, the 626, 557, 559 and 637 exchanges won't be running out any time soon, so the 250 is safe here for a while for residential lines. Vancouver residents have been using ten-digit dialing for local calls for many years. By September, 10 digit dialing will be the only way to call anywhere in the province, or out of it.