Phone prefixes in Cache Creek, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

10

Telephone numbers covered

100,000

Carriers

6

Area codes

4

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

October 5, 2006

Most recent assignment

August 14, 2023

Cache Creek’s share of its area codes

Within area code 672, Cache Creek accounts for only 4 of 320 prefixes (1.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 108 rate centres. Within area code 236, Cache Creek accounts for only 2 of 730 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 250, Cache Creek accounts for only 2 of 781 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres. Within area code 778, Cache Creek accounts for only 2 of 779 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 5 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 5 other carriers. Code by code: in 672, Iristel Inc. leads with 3 of 4 prefixes ahead of 1 others; in 236, Iristel Inc. leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; in 250, Bell Mobility leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; in 778, Iristel Inc. leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Cache Creek’s 4 area codes, while 5 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

2 of Cache Creek’s 10 prefixes (20.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, ISP Telecom Inc, Navigata Communications Limited and TELUS. 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

Cache Creek’s dated assignments run from 2006 to 2023. The busiest period was 2020–2024, when 5 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (10%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 5 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Cache Creek’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 Bell Mobility in 2006. The most recent arrivals are ISP Telecom Inc. (2022), Navigata Communications Limited (2016) and Iristel Inc. (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Cache Creek.

Cache Creek has only 10 prefixes, or 100,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

Iristel Inc. leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 5 competitors have set up in Cache Creek: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Growth is recent: 55.6% of the dated prefixes were assigned in the last ten years, peaking in 2020–2024. Cache Creek is among the rate centres where demand for numbers is still rising quickly.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Cache Creek number

Cache Creek is served by 4 overlaid area codes (672, 236, 250 and 778). A 778 number is no more “out of town” than a 672 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Cache Creek shares area codes 672, 236, 250 and 778 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, New Westminster, Abbotsford, Nanaimo, South Kamloops and Prince George. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 397 prefixes in 236, 672 and 778; the smallest on the list, Campbell River, has just 21.

What a Cache Creek number tells you

A number attached to Cache Creek tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, 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 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 Cache Creek: code 672-202 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 672-202-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Cache Creek, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Cache Creek prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 10 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia