History
Its first use for this purpose was in Baltimore, Maryland, where the service commenced on 2 October 1996. 3-1-1 is intended to connect callers to a call center that can be the same as the 9-1-1 call center, but with 3-1-1 calls assigned a secondary priority, answered only when no 9-1-1 calls are waiting. This system is intended to extend the system such that true emergency callers are answered quickly, without ringing or busy signals.
The largest 3-1-1 operation in North America operates in Toronto which was implemented in 2009.
The CRTC formally reserved the use of 3-1-1 for non-emergency municipal services throughout Canada on 5 November 2004. The first Canadian 3-1-1 service opened in Calgary, Alberta on 18 May 2005.
The 311 code was previously used by some telephone companies for testing purposes. In Alberta, 311 was the ANAC number until 1 April 2005 when this was changed to 958-6111 to make way for the present 3-1-1 service.
In former times, "311" was sometimes used as a fictitious area code in Bell System advertisements depicting telephones; often the phone in the advertisement would bear the specific number "Area Code 311 555-2368." This fictitious phone number was used in the 1979 horror film When a Stranger Calls, in the opening of The Rockford Files, and on two episodes of Mission: Impossible second season, episode 22 titled "The Killing" on the killers phone and, fourth season, episode 12, titled "Time Bomb" on a phone at a nuclear plant in a fictitious country. 311 555-2368 was also used in numerous episodes of The Bionic Woman as the private phone number of Jaime Sommers in her coach house. The number 311-555-9845 was used for a radio station hotline in episode 1, season 1 of the TV show A.L.F. This area code is also used as the area code for Sunnyvale, California (which is in reality 408) in the 1983 movie WarGames during the "war dialing" sequence where the main character is searching for a video game company's modem pool.
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