Phone prefixes in Cap-aux-Meules, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

October 19, 2020

Most recent assignment

July 20, 2023

Cap-aux-Meules’s share of its area codes

Within area code 581, Cap-aux-Meules accounts for only 2 of 778 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 232 rate centres. Within area code 367, Cap-aux-Meules accounts for only 1 of 232 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 110 rate centres. Within area code 418, Cap-aux-Meules accounts for only 1 of 777 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 258 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Canada holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 25.0% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 581, Bell Canada leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; TELUS Mobility is the only holder in 367; Telebec Ltee. is the only holder in 418. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Cap-aux-Meules’s 3 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

1 of Cap-aux-Meules’s 4 prefixes (25.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Bell Canada, TELUS Quebec and Telebec Ltee. 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

Cap-aux-Meules’s dated assignments run from 2020 to 2023. The busiest period was 2020–2024, when 3 prefixes went to 3 carriers. 1 prefixes (25%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 3 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Cap-aux-Meules’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Telebec Ltee: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS Quebec in 2020. The most recent arrivals are Bell Canada (2023), TELUS Mobility (2021) and TELUS Quebec (2020), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Cap-aux-Meules.

Cap-aux-Meules has just 4 prefixes (40,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Cap-aux-Meules: the leader, Bell Canada, holds only 25.0% of the prefixes against 3 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Growth is recent: 100.0% of the dated prefixes were assigned in the last ten years, peaking in 2020–2024. Cap-aux-Meules is among the rate centres where demand for numbers is still rising quickly.

The register also shows 1 prefix assigned but not yet in service in Cap-aux-Meules (Cogeco Connexion Inc): numbers that will start showing up on call displays in the coming months.

Dialling a Cap-aux-Meules number

Cap-aux-Meules is served by 3 overlaid area codes (581, 367 and 418). A 418 number is no more “out of town” than a 581 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Cap-aux-Meules shares area codes 581, 367 and 418 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Quebec, Chicoutimi, Alma, Rimouski, Riviere-du-Loup, Thetford Mines, Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce and Levis. The largest of them, Quebec, holds 282 prefixes in 367, 418 and 581; the smallest on the list, Saint-Henri-de-Levis, has just 16.

What a Cap-aux-Meules number tells you

A number attached to Cap-aux-Meules tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, most often Bell Canada. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 4 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 Quebec area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Cap-aux-Meules: code 581-407 is recorded for Bell Canada, so every 581-407-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Cap-aux-Meules, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Cap-aux-Meules prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 4 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec