Phone prefixes in Douglas

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

2

First assignment

May 7, 2008

Most recent assignment

March 31, 2016

Provinces and territories

This name is used for separate rate centres in 2 provinces. The prefixes below share a name in the CNAC register but belong to different communities.

• Manitoba — 3 prefixes
• Ontario — 1 prefixes

Douglas’s share of its area codes

Within area code 204, Douglas accounts for only 2 of 781 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Winnipeg and spread over 245 rate centres. Within area code 431, Douglas accounts for only 1 of 571 prefixes (0.2%): the code is dominated by Winnipeg and spread over 146 rate centres. Within area code 613, Douglas accounts for only 1 of 772 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Ottawa-Hull and spread over 132 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 204, MTS Inc. leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; TELUS Integrated Communications is the only holder in 431; Bell Canada is the only holder in 613. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Douglas’s 3 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Douglas’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 4 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Bell Canada, MTS Inc, Provincial Tel Inc and TELUS Integrated Communications. A call showing a Douglas number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Douglas’s dated assignments run from 2008 to 2016. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 2 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 Douglas is flat.

Douglas’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada and MTS Inc: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Provincial Tel Inc. in 2008. The most recent arrivals are TELUS Integrated Communications (2016) and Provincial Tel Inc. (2008), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Douglas.

Douglas 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 Douglas: 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.

Allocation is mature: only 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2005–2009, and 2 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Douglas numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Douglas number

Douglas is served by 3 overlaid area codes (204, 431 and 613). A 613 number is no more “out of town” than a 204 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Douglas shares area codes 204, 431 and 613 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Winnipeg, Ottawa-Hull, Kingston, Brandon, Belleville, Portage La Prairie, Kanata-Stittsville and Steinbach. The largest of them, Winnipeg, holds 386 prefixes in 204 and 431; the smallest on the list, Virden, has just 13.

What a Douglas number tells you

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

Reading a register entry for Douglas: code 613-649 is recorded for Bell Canada, so every 613-649-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Douglas, Manitoba” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Douglas prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in Manitoba