New 10 Digit Phone Dialing for Ottawa and Montreal Areas
On June 17th, 2006, Bell Canada will be modifying their telephone systems which serve the 613 and 514 telephone exchanges so that all outbound telephone calls will require the use of the area code (10 digit dialing). If you use a regular dial-up modem to access Primus' Internet services, this change will require that you make a change to your computer's configuration. Please review the following information which provides instructions on how to proceed.

1. What is 10 digit dialing?

Currently, when making a local call, you dial a 7 digit number (555-1234). 10 digit dialing means you will now have to dial the area code in front of the local number (613-555-1234). Dialing the area code does not make this a long distance call.

2. What will happen on June 17th, 2006?

As of June 17th, if you dial a seven digit telephone number in the Ottawa or Montreal area, you will get a recorded message from Bell stating that you must dial 10 digits for your call to go through properly.

3. How does this affect my service with Primus?

Primus clients using our Dial-up Internet Access will be affected by this automated message because your Primus Dialer functions very similar to a phone when establishing a connection. When your modem dials out and "hears" the recorded Bell message, it will result in an error such as "failed to establish a connection". To address this, a small change is required to add the area code to the number you use to connect to Primus for your dial-up connection.

Please note that clients using Primus High Speed will be unaffected by this change. This change will only affect people using Dial-up Internet Access as their primary or back up Internet connection.

4. Do I need to wait until June 17th to update my dialer configuration?

You can (and should) make the change now. Bell's systems already have been modified to support the 10 digit dialing.

5. What steps do I take to update my dialer with Primus?

To change the number on your dialer, simply go to the "Dial Up Networking", "Network Connections", or similarly named folder on your computer, right click on your Primus dialer icon, choose "Properties", add the appropriate area code to the number listed and click ok. Once done you will be dialing with the full 10 digit number as required.

Please see our Primus Support web page (URL below) for further instructions on how to setup Dial Up Networking on your computer, the step-by-step instructions on these pages contain the method to create a new dialer with the full 10 digit phone number.

http://support.primus.ca/en/trouble/index.php
The 10 digit Primus Dial-up Internet Access numbers are as follows:
Ottawa: 613-564-0322
Belleville: 613-969-2149
Montreal: 514-866-6820

For further assistance adjusting your dialer, please call Primus Support at:

Residential customers: 1-800-370-0015

Business customers: 1-888-222-8577

6. I have finished updating my Primus dialer configuration. Where do I get more information on 10 digit dialing in general?

Additional details on the move to 10 digit dialing for the 613 area code can be found here:

http://www.dial10.ca/1053/regions/613.asp