Phone prefixes in Bienfait, SK

In numbers

In-service prefixes

2

Telephone numbers covered

20,000

Carriers

2

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

May 23, 2014

Most recent assignment

May 23, 2014

Bienfait’s share of its area code

Within area code 306, Bienfait accounts for only 2 of 777 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Saskatoon and spread over 228 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Access Communications Co-operative Limited holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 1 other carrier. Code by code: in 306, Access Communications Co-operative Limited leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others.

Wireless and wireline

None of Bienfait’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 2 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Access Communications Co-operative Limited and SaskTel. A call showing a Bienfait number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Bienfait’s dated assignments run from 2014 to 2014. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 1 prefixes (50%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. No prefix has been added since 2020: demand for numbers in Bienfait is flat.

Bienfait’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to SaskTel: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Access Communications Co-operative Limited in 2014. The most recent arrivals are Access Communications Co-operative Limited (2014), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Bienfait.

Bienfait has just 2 prefixes (20,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

Access Communications Co-operative Limited leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 1 competitors have set up in Bienfait: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Allocation is mature: only 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2010–2014, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Bienfait numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Bienfait number

A single area code, 306, covers Bienfait, 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 +1 306 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Bienfait shares area code 306 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, North Battleford, Swift Current, Yorkton and Kindersley. The largest of them, Saskatoon, holds 91 prefixes in 306; the smallest on the list, Melfort, has just 7.

What a Bienfait number tells you

A number attached to Bienfait tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Saskatchewan, most often Access Communications Co-operative Limited. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 2 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 Saskatchewan area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Bienfait: code 306-300 is recorded for Access Communications Co-operative Limited, so every 306-300-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Bienfait, Saskatchewan” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Bienfait prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 2 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Saskatchewan