Phone prefixes in Caraquet, NB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

11

Telephone numbers covered

110,000

Carriers

8

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 6, 2003

Most recent assignment

April 24, 2025

Caraquet’s share of its area code

Within area code 506, Caraquet accounts for only 11 of 677 prefixes (1.6%): the code is dominated by Moncton and spread over 88 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 27.3% of the total, ahead of 7 other carriers. Code by code: in 506, Iristel Inc. leads with 3 of 11 prefixes ahead of 7 others.

Wireless and wireline

3 of Caraquet’s 11 prefixes (27.3%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility Aliant, Fido Solutions Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, Aliant Telecom(NB), Bragg Communications Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable). 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

Caraquet’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2025. The busiest period was 2000–2004, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 2 prefixes (18%) 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.

Caraquet’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom(NB): this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2003. The most recent arrivals are Bragg Communications Inc. (2023), Iristel Inc. (2016) and TELUS Integrated Communications (2015), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Caraquet.

Caraquet has only 11 prefixes, or 110,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Caraquet: the leader, Iristel Inc., holds only 27.3% of the prefixes against 7 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: 33.3% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2000–2004. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Caraquet number

A single area code, 506, covers Caraquet, 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 +1 506 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Caraquet shares area code 506 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, Miramichi, Bathurst, Edmundston, Campbellton and Tracadie. The largest of them, Moncton, holds 79 prefixes in 506; the smallest on the list, Sackville, has just 9.

What a Caraquet number tells you

A number attached to Caraquet tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in New Brunswick, 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 8 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 New Brunswick area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Caraquet: code 506-616 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 506-616-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Caraquet, New Brunswick” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Caraquet prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 11 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in New Brunswick