613 Area Code – Ottawa, Ontario: Location, Time Zone & History

Area code 613 dates to October 1947, when it was among the original 86 area codes established under the North American Numbering Plan, initially covering most of Ontario outside the Golden Horseshoe. Two territorial reductions followed soon after: the southwestern portion split off to form area code 519 in 1953, and the northern portion was carved away to create area code 705 in 1957, leaving 613 to serve Ottawa and eastern Ontario in roughly its present form.

As population and telecommunications demand kept growing, regulators turned to overlays rather than further geographic splits. Area code 343 was approved in 2008 and entered service in 2010 as an all-services overlay on the existing 613 territory, and a second overlay, 753, followed in 2022. In 2025, regulators set aside a fourth code, 871, for future relief of the 343/613/753 complex, with exhaustion projected around 2029.

Ottawa, the primary city in the numbering plan area, is Canada's national capital and seat of the federal government, and the plan area also extends to Kingston, Belleville, Cornwall, and Pembroke. The Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site running through the city, hosts the annual Winterlude festival each winter, while the Kanata North tech park has earned Ottawa's western edge the nickname "Silicon Valley North," reflecting a local economy built on federal government, information technology, and defence and aerospace research.