Phone prefixes in Brandon, MB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

38

Telephone numbers covered

380,000

Carriers

12

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

December 3, 1999

Most recent assignment

May 30, 2022

Brandon’s share of its area codes

Within area code 204, Brandon accounts for only 28 of 781 prefixes (3.6%): the code is dominated by Winnipeg and spread over 245 rate centres. Within area code 431, Brandon accounts for only 10 of 571 prefixes (1.8%): the code is dominated by Winnipeg and spread over 146 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

MTS Inc. holds the largest share at 16 prefixes, 42.1% of the total, ahead of 11 other carriers. Code by code: in 204, MTS Inc. leads with 15 of 28 prefixes ahead of 9 others; in 431, Bell Mobility leads with 3 of 10 prefixes ahead of 6 others. 5 carriers hold prefixes in every one of Brandon’s 2 area codes, while 7 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

13 of Brandon’s 38 prefixes (34.2%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless), TELUS Mobility and Fido Solutions Inc. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by MTS Inc, Bell West Inc, TELUS Integrated Communications and Comwave Networks. 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

Brandon’s dated assignments run from 1999 to 2022. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 12 prefixes went to 8 carriers. 11 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 2 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Brandon’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to MTS Inc, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and TELUS Mobility: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to MTS Inc. in 1999. The most recent arrivals are Comwave Networks (2014), LES.NET (1996) Inc. (2013) and RFNow Inc. (2013), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Brandon.

Brandon’s 38 prefixes provide 380,000 numbers, which corresponds to a mid-sized city or a well-established suburb that every major carrier wants a slice of.

MTS Inc. leads with 42.1% of the prefixes, but 11 competitors have set up in Brandon: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Allocation is mature: only 7.4% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2010–2014, and 11 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Brandon numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

11 undated in the register.

Dialling a Brandon number

Brandon is served by 2 overlaid area codes (204 and 431). A 431 number is no more “out of town” than a 204 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Brandon shares area codes 204 and 431 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Winnipeg, Portage La Prairie, Steinbach, Oakbank, Stonewall, Dauphin, Selkirk and Thompson. The largest of them, Winnipeg, holds 386 prefixes in 204 and 431; the smallest on the list, Austin, has just 9.

What a Brandon number tells you

A number attached to Brandon tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Manitoba, most often MTS Inc.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 12 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 Manitoba area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Brandon: code 204-455 is recorded for MTS Inc., so every 204-455-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Brandon, Manitoba” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Brandon prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 38 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Manitoba