Phone prefixes in Asbestos, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

10

Telephone numbers covered

100,000

Carriers

9

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

November 14, 2006

Most recent assignment

November 17, 2025

Asbestos’s share of its area codes

Within area code 873, Asbestos accounts for only 6 of 667 prefixes (0.9%): the code is dominated by Sherbrooke and spread over 162 rate centres. Within area code 819, Asbestos accounts for only 3 of 770 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Ottawa-Hull and spread over 211 rate centres. Within area code 468, Asbestos accounts for only 1 of 67 prefixes (1.5%): the code is dominated by Ottawa-Hull and spread over 57 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Fibernetics Corporation holds the largest share at 2 prefixes, 20.0% of the total, ahead of 8 other carriers. Code by code: in 873, Fibernetics Corporation leads with 2 of 6 prefixes ahead of 4 others; in 819, Bell Canada leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others; 9164-3122 Quebec inc is the only holder in 468. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Asbestos’s 3 area codes, while 9 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Asbestos’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 10 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Fibernetics Corporation, 9164-3122 Quebec inc, Bell Canada and Cooptel. A call showing a Asbestos number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Asbestos’s dated assignments run from 2006 to 2025. The busiest period was 2020–2024, when 5 prefixes went to 4 carriers. 1 prefixes (10%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 6 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Asbestos’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS Quebec in 2006. The most recent arrivals are Cooptel (2025), 9164-3122 Quebec inc (2022) and IXICA Communications Inc. (2021), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Asbestos.

Asbestos has only 10 prefixes, or 100,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Asbestos: the leader, Fibernetics Corporation, holds only 20.0% of the prefixes against 8 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Growth is recent: 66.7% of the dated prefixes were assigned in the last ten years, peaking in 2020–2024. Asbestos is among the rate centres where demand for numbers is still rising quickly.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Asbestos number

Asbestos is served by 3 overlaid area codes (873, 819 and 468). A 468 number is no more “out of town” than a 873 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Asbestos shares area codes 873, 819 and 468 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Ottawa-Hull, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivieres, Drummondville, Victoriaville, Gatineau, Val-D'Or and Maniwaki. The largest of them, Ottawa-Hull, holds 122 prefixes in 468, 819 and 873; the smallest on the list, Ville-Marie, has just 12.

What a Asbestos number tells you

A number attached to Asbestos tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, most often Fibernetics Corporation. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 9 carriers present here or to a VoIP service usable anywhere. Nor does it tell you who is calling: caller ID can be spoofed, and a Quebec area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Asbestos: code 873-312 is recorded for Fibernetics Corporation, so every 873-312-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Asbestos, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Asbestos prefix

Each row is an in-service central-office code recorded for Asbestos, with its original holder and year of assignment.

Allocated prefixes

All 10 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec