Phone prefixes in Behchoko, NT

In numbers

In-service prefixes

7

Telephone numbers covered

70,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

January 18, 2013

Most recent assignment

May 1, 2024

Behchoko’s share of its area code

Within area code 867, Behchoko accounts for only 7 of 258 prefixes (2.7%): the code is dominated by Yellowknife and spread over 75 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 42.9% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 867, Iristel Inc. leads with 3 of 7 prefixes ahead of 3 others.

Wireless and wireline

2 of Behchoko’s 7 prefixes (28.6%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility and Ice Wireless Inc. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc and Northwestel. This is a sort by name, not a licence lookup, and a mobile prefix may have been ported to another network since.

How the allocation was built up

Behchoko’s dated assignments run from 2013 to 2024. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 3 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 2 prefixes (29%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 1 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Behchoko’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Northwestel: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell Mobility in 2013. The most recent arrivals are Ice Wireless Inc. (2017), Iristel Inc. (2014) and Bell Mobility (2013), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Behchoko.

Behchoko has just 7 prefixes (70,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

Iristel Inc. leads with 42.9% of the prefixes, but 3 competitors have set up in Behchoko: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Demand remains steady: 20.0% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2010–2014. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Behchoko number

A single area code, 867, covers Behchoko, and it is not overlaid with any other code on this territory: one of the few parts of Canada where seven-digit local dialling may still work. From abroad, dial +1 867 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Behchoko shares area code 867 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Iqaluit, Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, Arviat, Dawson City and Arctic Bay. The largest of them, Yellowknife, holds 35 prefixes in 867; the smallest on the list, Kimmirut, has just 3.

What a Behchoko number tells you

A number attached to Behchoko tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Northwest Territories, most often Iristel Inc.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 4 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 Northwest Territories area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Behchoko: code 867-292 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 867-292-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Behchoko, Northwest Territories” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Behchoko prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 7 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Northwest Territories