Phone prefixes in Boston Bar, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

6

Telephone numbers covered

60,000

Carriers

6

Area codes

4

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

August 15, 2014

Most recent assignment

September 13, 2021

Boston Bar’s share of its area codes

Within area code 236, Boston Bar accounts for only 3 of 730 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 604, Boston Bar accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 44 rate centres. Within area code 672, Boston Bar accounts for only 1 of 320 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 108 rate centres. Within area code 778, Boston Bar accounts for only 1 of 779 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Comwave Networks holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 16.7% of the total, ahead of 5 other carriers. Code by code: in 236, Comwave Networks leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others; TELUS is the only holder in 604; Fibernetics Corporation is the only holder in 672; Distributel is the only holder in 778. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Boston Bar’s 4 area codes, while 6 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Boston Bar’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 6 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Comwave Networks, Distributel, Fibernetics Corporation and ISP Telecom Inc. A call showing a Boston Bar number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Boston Bar’s dated assignments run from 2014 to 2021. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (17%) 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.

Boston Bar’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 Comwave Networks in 2014. The most recent arrivals are ISP Telecom Inc. (2021), Fibernetics Corporation (2020) and IXICA Communications Inc. (2018), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Boston Bar.

Boston Bar has just 6 prefixes (60,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Boston Bar: the leader, Comwave Networks, holds only 16.7% of the prefixes against 5 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Demand remains steady: 40.0% 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 Boston Bar number

Boston Bar is served by 4 overlaid area codes (236, 604, 672 and 778). A 778 number is no more “out of town” than a 236 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Boston Bar shares area codes 236, 604, 672 and 778 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, New Westminster, Abbotsford, Victoria, Richmond, North Vancouver, Aldergrove and Newton. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 740 prefixes in 236, 604, 672 and 778; the smallest on the list, Nanaimo, has just 22.

What a Boston Bar number tells you

A number attached to Boston Bar tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Comwave Networks. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 6 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 Boston Bar: code 236-261 is recorded for Comwave Networks, so every 236-261-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Boston Bar, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Boston Bar prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 6 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia