Phone prefixes in Fauquier

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

2

First assignment

March 15, 2012

Most recent assignment

April 25, 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.

• British Columbia — 2 prefixes
• Ontario — 2 prefixes

Fauquier’s share of its area codes

Within area code 705, Fauquier accounts for only 2 of 770 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Barrie and spread over 203 rate centres. Within area code 236, Fauquier accounts for only 1 of 730 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 250, Fauquier accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bragg Communications Inc. holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 25.0% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 705, Bragg Communications Inc. leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; Navigata Communications Limited is the only holder in 236; TELUS is the only holder in 250. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Fauquier’s 3 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

None of Fauquier’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 4 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Bragg Communications Inc, Navigata Communications Limited, Northern Telephone Ltd and TELUS. A call showing a Fauquier number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

Fauquier’s dated assignments run from 2012 to 2016. The busiest period was 2010–2014, 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 Fauquier is flat.

Fauquier’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Northern Telephone Ltd and TELUS: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bragg Communications Inc. in 2012. The most recent arrivals are Navigata Communications Limited (2016) and Bragg Communications Inc. (2012), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Fauquier.

Fauquier 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 Fauquier: the leader, Bragg Communications Inc., 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 2010–2014, and 2 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Fauquier numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Fauquier number

Fauquier is served by 3 overlaid area codes (705, 236 and 250). A 250 number is no more “out of town” than a 705 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Fauquier shares area codes 705, 236 and 250 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Barrie, Kelowna, Sudbury, Peterborough, Nanaimo and Sault Ste. Marie. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 142 prefixes in 236; the smallest on the list, Parksville, has just 17.

What a Fauquier number tells you

A number attached to Fauquier tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Bragg Communications Inc.. 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 British Columbia area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Fauquier: code 705-376 is recorded for Bragg Communications Inc., so every 705-376-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Fauquier, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Fauquier prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in British Columbia