Dwindling phone numbers, recycling leaving Canadians with ‘previous owner’ call frustrations

There remains a legion of Toronto purists who would never be caught dead with one of those newfangled "647" area codes.

Instead, they patiently put themselves on a waiting list for a "416" number — the city's long-time triple identifier.

But as CTV News reports, constant number recycling has left phone users with an annoyance that makes wait times seem trifling in comparison.

Increasing demand for new phone numbers has also led to an increasing number of Canadians receiving non-stop phone calls for the number's previous owner.

Sometimes it's a strange clerical error, like the time Nic Morgan received an early morning call reassuring the Toronto university student that he wasn't, in fact, pregnant.

Occasionally an unlucky mobile user will discover he or she is the recipient of a former party line, as in the case of Lara Davidson.

Davidson told CTV News that it took two years before she finally stopped receiving an endless barrage of calls for an extremely popular person named Diana.

The phone would ring from banks, charities, friends and most annoyingly, partygoers hoping for Diana's company at a 2 a.m. bash.

[ Related: Bell proposes steep price hike to keep public payphones alive ]

More alarmingly, however, an 11-year-old girl in Oshawa began receiving phone calls soliciting sex last Christmas after Bell reassigned her the former number of an area escort service.

"We began to suspect something out of the ordinary when my wife answered a call one afternoon and was asked if she could 'do a half-hour,'" the girl's horrified father, Julian Luke, told the Toronto Star.

Luke immediately confiscated his daughter's phone and contacted Bell customer service — only to be told they would not waive the $20 number change fee.

It took pressure from the Star to get the fee removed. It's an additional annoyance that could come into play as this trend continues to grow, as not everyone can count on a media intervention.

And grow it will. While the Canadian Numbering Administration originally projected that Canadian phone numbers — in all the country's 31 area codes — will effectively run out in the next three decades, that window is shrinking much faster than expected.

With 60 million numbers currently in use, and 1.5 million new wireless users signing up each year, the need for new numbers is a constant.

And though phone companies must sit on old mobile phone numbers for 90 days before reassigning them, the likelihood of receiving a few strange phone calls on your new cell is almost a given.

To the relief — or chagrin — of many, the CNA has announced plans to roll out several new area codes over the next few years.

This includes yet another area code for Toronto, the 437, set to debut on March 25, 2013.

[ Related: New GTA area codes coming next year, possible problems as shown on TV ]

So now instead of simply vying for a coveted "416," expect a new waiting list to pop up for the increasingly rare "647."