Phone prefixes in Colombier, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

2

Telephone numbers covered

20,000

Carriers

2

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

April 18, 2012

Most recent assignment

April 18, 2012

Colombier’s share of its area codes

Within area code 418, Colombier accounts for only 1 of 777 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 258 rate centres. Within area code 581, Colombier accounts for only 1 of 778 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 232 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

TELUS Quebec holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 1 other carrier. Code by code: TELUS Quebec is the only holder in 418; Videotron Ltd. is the only holder in 581. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Colombier’s 2 area codes, while 2 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Colombier’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 2 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them TELUS Quebec and Videotron Ltd. A call showing a Colombier number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Colombier’s dated assignments run from 2012 to 2012. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 1 prefixes (50%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. No prefix has been added since 2020: demand for numbers in Colombier is flat.

Colombier’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS Quebec: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Videotron Ltd. in 2012. The most recent arrivals are Videotron Ltd. (2012), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Colombier.

Colombier has just 2 prefixes (20,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

TELUS Quebec leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 1 competitors have set up in Colombier: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Allocation is mature: only 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2010–2014, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Colombier numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Colombier number

Colombier is served by 2 overlaid area codes (418 and 581). A 581 number is no more “out of town” than a 418 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Colombier shares area codes 418 and 581 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Quebec, Chicoutimi, Rimouski, Alma, Riviere-du-Loup, Thetford Mines, Levis and Saint-Georges-de-Beauce. The largest of them, Quebec, holds 245 prefixes in 418 and 581; the smallest on the list, Chibougamau, has just 11.

What a Colombier number tells you

A number attached to Colombier tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, most often TELUS Quebec. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 2 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 Colombier: code 418-565 is recorded for TELUS Quebec, so every 418-565-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Colombier, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Colombier prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 2 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec