[PhotoJim]

Originally Posted by petkow

Point taken though... at least Canada and the US should be different country codes, after all what other separate countries (however small they are) share a country code? (Well OK the vatican has it's own +379 but I think it uses Italy's +39 in reality)

It wouldn't help things that much to give Canada a separate country code. I guess it would let you distinguish Canadian numbers, but the real reason to give us our own code is to free up area codes, since you are running out. However, we don't use that many area codes, maybe 20.

A better tack might be to add a digit to the area code and make all Canadian area codes start with the same number, e.g. 2... so area code 2416 would be Toronto, area code 2403 would be southern Alberta, area code 2204 would be Manitoba, area code 2450 would be suburban Montreal, etc. Existing US area codes might start with 3, e.g. 3212 for Manhattan in New York City. I suppose you could pedantically argue that that would make Canada in country code 12 and the US in country code 13, except that Americans would use domestic dialling sequences to reach Canada (e.g. 1-2403-555-1212) and not overseas sequences (e.g. 011-2403-555-1212).

I guess the better question is why American cellular companies charge for long distance to Canada? Some VoIP telephony providers, like Yahoo, charge less to call Canada than to call the US. Most providers charge precisely the same rate for both countries.

By the way, Quebecers aren't required to answer the phone in French. They can answer in Punjabi if they want. Many Quebecers, especially in Montréal, are anglophones.