Other Canadian area codes

Kevin H. 4656

Is there a technical reason we can't carry our existing phone number from a Saskatchewan area code (306) to fizz? I understand fizz is a Quebec/Ottawa thing, but I've been living in Ottawa for 6 years with the same phone number as always. Why do area codes matter at all?

M T. #338

That's how Cell phone business works. It allocates local area code according to your current address.

Kevin H. 4656

Right, but my current address is in Ottawa, and my area code is 306. I want to use Fizz but there's no way I'm changing phone numbers again

M T. #338

Saskatchewan is not part of Fizz subscription area. Therefore it's impossible to have Saskatchewan are code with Fizz at the moment. Fizz might decide to expand their subscription area to other locations in the future ( long term ).

Allison W.

You've been able to keep your number with other providers because they offer Saskatchewan numbers, but Fizz doesn't.

Jonathan C. 2531

Hi Kevin, my wife and I were in a similar boat after moving to Quebec and wanting to get the better Québec cell phone plan prices but keep the Ontario numbers we've had forever. Bell flat out refused for her, which is who she was with at the time, and Koodo tried but had troubles because the system wouldn't let them port her phone number and set up the new account on a Québec plan. The only solution was to get a Quebec number and then later port in her Ontario number in the online account settings, which also switched her account over to Ontario again so although she didn't have to change her plan she's no longer able to get Québec plan options if she wants to change again. When I switched to Koodo as well about a month later I had to do the same thing, with the same result. Not the same problem you're experiencing, but similar and due to the same cause - cell phone plans are still very much tied to area codes for everyone right now. Even though it makes no sense anymore and hasn't for quite a few years.
When I switched to Fizz a few months ago I also was unable to port my phone number because of the area code restrictions. So what I did, and I recommend you do if you are staying in Ottawa permanently, is port my number to Fongo instead for $25 and installed their app on my phone. With the cheap LTE data offerings from Fizz you can still do all your calling within Canada through Fongo and keep your number if you want, or you can forward all calls to your new Ottawa number and nobody will be the wiser. And you can still receive text messages on your old number too, then reply to them from the new number and ask people to update their contact card with the new number. It's about as seamless as you can get for a truly region free number at no extra monthly cost. If you still want to be able to reply to texts from the old number you'll have to pay Fongo a small monthly fee, I think $3-4. Note that (just like Fizz right now) Fongo doesn't support most 2FA texts at the moment. You can do something similar with other voip services, like voip.ms, but from what I've found the other options all have monthly fees attached.

James M. #1533

Fizz doesn't allow users who live in other areas other than Ottawa and Quebec to subscribe to Fizz therefore, other area-codes are not possible to be ported over to a Fizz plan. Sorry about this. You should go to another carrier if you really need to keep your number. Good luck!

Anne H. #1344

Get a Fongo account, and port your number to there. Then call forwarding all number to your new ottawa number. This way you won't miss anything from your old buddies.

Anthony I. #889

You cannot port a number which doesn't originate from the subscription zone.