Phone prefixes in Carbonear, NL

In numbers

In-service prefixes

13

Telephone numbers covered

130,000

Carriers

6

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

January 3, 2006

Most recent assignment

April 4, 2024

Carbonear’s share of its area code

Within area code 709, Carbonear accounts for only 13 of 630 prefixes (2.1%): the code is dominated by St. John's and spread over 209 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 5 prefixes, 38.5% of the total, ahead of 5 other carriers. Code by code: in 709, Iristel Inc. leads with 5 of 13 prefixes ahead of 5 others.

Wireless and wireline

2 of Carbonear’s 13 prefixes (15.4%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility Aliant. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, Aliant Telecom (NF), Bragg Communications Inc and Distributel. 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

Carbonear’s dated assignments run from 2006 to 2024. The busiest period was 2020–2024, when 7 prefixes went to 4 carriers. 2 prefixes (15%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 7 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Carbonear’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom (NF): this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell Mobility Aliant in 2006. The most recent arrivals are Distributel (2022), Iristel Inc. (2016) and TELUS Integrated Communications (2014), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Carbonear.

Carbonear has only 13 prefixes, or 130,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Carbonear: the leader, Iristel Inc., holds only 38.5% 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.

Growth is recent: 63.6% of the dated prefixes were assigned in the last ten years, peaking in 2020–2024. Carbonear is among the rate centres where demand for numbers is still rising quickly.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Carbonear number

A single area code, 709, covers Carbonear, 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 +1 709 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Carbonear shares area code 709 with at least 20 other rate centres, including St. John's, Corner Brook, Clarenville, Gander, Marystown, Bay Roberts, Labrador City - Wabush and Deer Lake. The largest of them, St. John's, holds 100 prefixes in 709; the smallest on the list, Grand Bank, has just 5.

What a Carbonear number tells you

A number attached to Carbonear tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Newfoundland and Labrador, 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 Newfoundland and Labrador area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Carbonear: code 709-501 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 709-501-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Carbonear, Newfoundland and Labrador” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Carbonear prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 13 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Newfoundland and Labrador