Area Code 343: Who Called Me From Ottawa?
Your 343 number, with +1 in front
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Where is area code 343?
Area code 343 serves Ottawa and the rest of Eastern Ontario, including Kingston, Cornwall, Belleville and Brockville. Proposed in 2007 and approved by the CRTC on September 10, 2008, it was activated on May 17, 2010, as an overlay for 613, several years earlier than expected. A third code, 753, was added in 2022.
| Location | Ottawa and Eastern Ontario |
|---|---|
| Region | Ontario |
| Time zone | Eastern Time: UTC−5, UTC−4 in summer |
| Shares its area with | 613 and 753 |
| Exchanges in service | 641 (CNAC, Oct 23, 2026) |
| Carriers holding exchanges | 26 |
Ottawa’s overlay code
Ottawa shares a local calling area with Gatineau across the river in Quebec, which uses 819, and for decades the two cities protected each other’s seven-digit numbers. Today, in CNAC’s records, many 343 exchanges are held by Fibernetics, TELUS and Iristel, carriers that provide numbers to business and internet phone services.
Where 343 exchanges are
| Place | Exchanges |
|---|---|
| Ottawa-Hull | 104 |
| Kingston | 23 |
| Cornwall | 22 |
| Belleville | 19 |
| Brockville | 17 |
| Bancroft | 13 |
| Kanata-Stittsville | 12 |
| Jockvale | 10 |
What cities are in area code 343?
Area code 343 serves Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. The CNAC records list the following places as having the most 343 number blocks:
- Ottawa–Gatineau
- Kingston
- Cornwall
- Belleville
- Brockville
- Bancroft
- Kanata–Stittsville
- Jockvale
- Merrickville
- Carleton Place
- Smiths Falls
- Hawkesbury
Local time in Ottawa (ET): Eastern Time
343 is on Eastern Time. If a 343 number calls you very early or very late in its own time zone, that is often a sign of an automated dialer.
Is 343 a cell phone number?
Area codes aren’t split by line type, so 343 covers mobiles, landlines and internet numbers alike. The useful clue is which companies hold its 641 exchanges (CNAC, Oct 23, 2026). The largest share of 343 exchanges sits with internet and wholesale carriers, which supply numbers to calling apps and VoIP services. Those numbers are cheap to create, which is why spammers like them.
Share of 343 exchanges by the type of carrier holding them. Numbers can be ported, so the lookup above checks the line type of the specific number.
343 complaints: FCC and FTC data
343 hardly shows up in US complaint data (45 FCC complaints, 9 FTC reports), which says more about where people report than about the code. In Canada, complaints go to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, whose data isn’t published number by number.
343 FCC complaints by year
*2026-10-25
343 call types, Oct 2025–Oct 2026
- Recorded message (robocall): 17 (89%)
- Text message: 1 (5%)
- Live caller: 1 (5%)
Top 343 FTC topics
- Impostors (government, business or family): 2
- Medical and prescription offers: 1
- Debt relief offers: 1
Who holds 343 numbers?
- Fibernetics Corporation: 92 exchanges (14%)
- TELUS: 83 exchanges (13%)
- Iristel: 67 exchanges (10%)
- Distributel: 65 exchanges (10%)
Because people take their numbers with them when they switch providers, only a lookup of the full number shows today’s carrier.
Got an unwanted call from 343?
Let unknown 343 calls go to voicemail and look the number up before returning it. Fraud in Canada is reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre; registering on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) stops most telemarketers who follow the rules. If you are in the US, file the report at reportfraud.ftc.gov instead.
Frequently asked questions
What time zone is area code 343 in?
Eastern Time, the same as the rest of Ottawa. If a 343 caller claims to be calling during office hours, the local clock should agree.
Is 343 an Ottawa number?
Yes. 343 covers Ottawa and Eastern Ontario, sharing the area with 613 and 753. It is on Eastern Time.
Is 343 the same as 613?
They cover the same region. 613 is the original 1947 code; 343 was added on top of it in 2010 and 753 in 2022.
Who is calling from area code 343?
Without the full number, all the area code says is that the line was issued for Ottawa and Eastern Ontario; the largest holder of 343 exchanges is Fibernetics. Complaint data adds context: 45 FCC complaints (rank 368 of 714). The topic that comes up most in the FTC reports is impostors posing as the government, a business or a relative. To identify one caller, run the number through the lookup above.
Why do 343 numbers keep calling me?
Usually because an automated dialer is working through numbers. In the last 12 months of FCC complaints about 343, 89% were prerecorded calls and 5% were texts. Don’t press a key to “opt out”; block the number and report it to the FTC.
Is 343 a legitimate area code?
It is a real, assigned area code, used by millions of lines in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. Being legitimate doesn’t make every 343 caller honest: fraudsters can fake any number, so be wary of urgency, threats or requests for payment.
Is 343 a cell phone number?
A 343 number could be a mobile, a landline or a VoIP line. By exchanges, the split is 14% mobile carriers, 19% landline companies and 50% internet carriers; the free lookup above reports the line type of the number you enter.
How do I look up a 343 number for free?
Use the lookup above: enter +1 and the ten digits. It checks line type, carrier, FCC and FTC complaints and what the web says about that number, without asking you to sign up.
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