Phone prefixes in Bonavista, NL

In numbers

In-service prefixes

7

Telephone numbers covered

70,000

Carriers

5

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

March 6, 2003

Most recent assignment

January 19, 2022

Bonavista’s share of its area code

Within area code 709, Bonavista accounts for only 7 of 630 prefixes (1.1%): the code is dominated by St. John's and spread over 209 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 42.9% of the total, ahead of 4 other carriers. Code by code: in 709, Iristel Inc. leads with 3 of 7 prefixes ahead of 4 others.

Wireless and wireline

2 of Bonavista’s 7 prefixes (28.6%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility Aliant and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, Aliant Telecom (NF) and Bragg Communications Inc. 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

Bonavista’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2022. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (14%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 2 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Bonavista’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom (NF): this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell Mobility Aliant in 2003. The most recent arrivals are Iristel Inc. (2016), TELUS Mobility (2015) and Bragg Communications Inc. (2009), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Bonavista.

Bonavista 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 4 competitors have set up in Bonavista: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Demand remains steady: 33.3% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2015–2019. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Bonavista number

A single area code, 709, covers Bonavista, 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 +1 709 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Bonavista shares area code 709 with at least 20 other rate centres, including St. John's, Corner Brook, Clarenville, Carbonear, Gander, Marystown, Bay Roberts and Labrador City - Wabush. The largest of them, St. John's, holds 100 prefixes in 709; the smallest on the list, Grand Bank, has just 5.

What a Bonavista number tells you

A number attached to Bonavista tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Newfoundland and Labrador, 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 5 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 Newfoundland and Labrador area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Bonavista: code 709-300 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 709-300-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Bonavista prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in Newfoundland and Labrador