Being called from Victoria is considered long distance even when I live in Victoria?

[pault]

Hello,

I bought my public mobile phone in Vancouver.  I moved to Victoria a year ago.  Is there a way I can have Victoria calls (250 area code) considered as a local call?  Do I need to change my address in Public Mobile website, or is there more I need to do, or is this even possible?

Thanks for any and all help!

Paul

[Nezgar]

You may also be able to get a free or cheap new local forwarding number - and keep your existing number if you are attached to it.

Freephoneline.ca - free calls and forwarding to/from any province if you make at least 1 outgoing call every 3 months

Voip.ms: 85c USD per month + a few cents per min for forwarding - no voip phone actually needed...

Callcentric - similar to voip.ms

Textnow - free , might take some refreshes to find a number local to victoria - the app doesnt indicate which city the choices are in - have cnac.ca up at the same time to check prefixes quickly... since its all app/data/wifi based it may not be as rock solid as  real phone line.

[AE_Collector]

That topic (Building Enterphone system) has been discussed many times. Yes, you need to change a local Victoria number for the enterphone system and other people primarily with landlines will get the message that you are a long distance call and some wont be bothered to pursue it further.

You dont need a 250 area code number, if there aren’t any 250 numbers available there are likely 778, 236 or the brand new 672 area code numbers you can change to.

AE_Collector

[pault]

Thanks for your response - that makes more sense.  The reason it is an issue is the condo building I just moved into does not want to pay long distance for calls for the buzzer system at the front door.

[will13am]

@pault , since Public Mobile plans comes with Canada wide calling, it should not be an issue for outgoing calls.  I take it your contacts are having to incur long distance charges to call you.  Honestly, that is an issue with your contact's service.  Since area code 250 is an old area code, it might be difficult getting a number.  You could try each day early in the morning to do a number change to see if any recycled 250 area code numbers become available.  

[gblackma · Accepted solution]

You would have to change your number to a local one @pault. It's the second set of numbers that determine whether your number is local or not. Ie xxx yyy xxxx. Please check the CNAC website to find which second 3 digits is local 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. If it bothers you, you can change your number to the desired local area code once each 30 day cycle through your self service account.

[Anonymous]

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@pault wrote:

Hello,

I bought my public mobile phone in Vancouver.  I moved to Victoria a year ago.  Is there a way I can have Victoria calls (250 area code) considered as a local call?  Do I need to change my address in Public Mobile website, or is there more I need to do, or is this even possible?

Thanks for any and all help!

Paul

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You need to change your number to a number that is known to be local to Victoria. It's the first 6 digits. Then people calling you with limited calling can call you "local". But really...doesn't everybody have Canada-wide? 🙂