Location and prefix

[ccleemoff21]

Our original phone suffix is 250 Shawnigan and Duncan B.C. area use. However since our original number location was Shawnigan Lake 50 km away from Victoria area when someone phones us from across the street in Victoria it still tells them they are calling Long distance.

How can this be fixed. I have our Victoria address in my profile and the Victoria prefix is 250 

There should be an area to have a drop down so our phone number should be based out of the area we live in.

**Victoria B.C.  

It seems ridiculous that all I can see is a change phone number option to get us 'located' in the Victoria area we reside in with same prefix.

[LovesToPM]

@ccleemoff21 

Mind if I ask what telecom service your neighbor across the street is using?

Just saying, if they were to switch to Public Mobile, they would likely be paying less (for more) and would get Canada-wide calling.

[Anonymous]

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@ccleemoff21 wrote:

Thank you

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It's all a legacy hold-over from the old days of landlines. While cell phones have made that old fashioned...it's still there in the infrastructure in the background. Victoria would not have been able to call Shawnigan without incurring long distance charges. You have a Shawnigan number based on your prefix. For landline subscribers in Victoria...it's a long distance call to your number even though you're sitting on the couch next to them. Then it's up to the cell phone provider and the subscribers plan as to what they deem long distance. From a Victoria prefix to a Shawnigan prefix.

The 250 area code covers the entire province other than the lower mainland. It is a long distance call from Victoria to Fort St. John even though they both have 250 as their area code.

[gblackma]

@Danchvn  I will use this thread as an example. Click on code 250 under the green html format section. Sort by rate centre Then look under Duncan you can see that Telus has co code 500 which is local there. If you go to Victoria you see Telus has co code 208. So if @ccleemoff21 would switch to 250 208, then anyone with for example a landline  calling from across the street wouldn't need to dial long distance. Stay safe. 

[ccleemoff21]

Thank you

[ccleemoff21]

250 is a prefix for Saanich; Sidney, Victoria and surrounding areas and Shawnigan and Cobble Hill area on Vancouver Island, however our old Shawnigan Lake # prefix of 250 - is long distance to those in Victoria. But we live in Victoria. None of the other area's above have this issue.

[Danchvn]

@gblackma A question for you. I've been looking at this chart and can't see how it shows if the number is local or not. Are you able to explain it a bit to me?

Thanks.

[will13am]

@ccleemoff21 , I would say the problem here is the affected people are on legacy calling plans that should be replaced with a modern plan.  A minimum spec plan these days is province wide calling.  With how numbers have been issued over the years, it would be impossible to get a number that would placate to the limited local calling capabilities of those legacy plans.  This is not something you want to hear, but it is what it is.  

[Dunkman]

@ccleemoff21 

As stated above, it really is not a Public mobile issue.  Any mobile company in Canada will have the same issue. 

For most mobile plans, it is not an issue since most plans include Canada wide calling.  The only option is to change numbers to your local area.

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/change-your-phone-number

[gblackma]

@ccleemoff21  the only way to get the desired local number is to change it. FYI Its the second set of numbers that determine whether your number is local or not. Ie xxx yyy xxxx. Please check the CNAC website to check if your number is local or not http://www.cnac.ca/co_codes/co_code_status.htm . Personally, I would leave it and dial 1 + 10 digit number and save it in my contacts. Lamdlines will find it a long distance number. Since it bothers you, you can change your number to the desired local area code once each 30 day cycle through your self service account.

Stay safe.