Phone prefixes in Black Point, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

2

Telephone numbers covered

20,000

Carriers

2

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

July 24, 2017

Most recent assignment

July 24, 2017

Black Point’s share of its area codes

Within area code 236, Black Point accounts for only 1 of 730 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 604, Black Point accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 44 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Shaw Telecom Inc. holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 1 other carrier. Code by code: Shaw Telecom Inc. is the only holder in 236; TELUS is the only holder in 604. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Black Point’s 2 area codes, while 2 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Black Point’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 2 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Shaw Telecom Inc and TELUS. A call showing a Black Point number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Black Point’s dated assignments run from 2017 to 2017. The busiest period was 2015–2019, 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 Black Point is flat.

Black Point’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Shaw Telecom Inc. in 2017. The most recent arrivals are Shaw Telecom Inc. (2017), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Black Point.

Black Point 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.

Shaw Telecom Inc. leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 1 competitors have set up in Black Point: 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 2015–2019, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Black Point numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Black Point number

Black Point is served by 2 overlaid area codes (236 and 604). A 604 number is no more “out of town” than a 236 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Black Point shares area codes 236 and 604 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, New Westminster, Richmond, Abbotsford, North Vancouver, Chilliwack, Aldergrove and Newton. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 485 prefixes in 236 and 604; the smallest on the list, White Rock, has just 13.

What a Black Point number tells you

A number attached to Black Point tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Shaw Telecom Inc.. 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 British Columbia area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Black Point: code 236-329 is recorded for Shaw Telecom Inc., so every 236-329-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Black Point, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Black Point prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in British Columbia