Phone prefixes in Foam Lake, SK

In numbers

In-service prefixes

6

Telephone numbers covered

60,000

Carriers

5

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

March 7, 2006

Most recent assignment

April 27, 2017

Foam Lake’s share of its area codes

Within area code 306, Foam Lake accounts for only 4 of 777 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by Saskatoon and spread over 228 rate centres. Within area code 639, Foam Lake accounts for only 2 of 776 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Regina and spread over 202 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

SaskTel holds the largest share at 2 prefixes, 33.3% of the total, ahead of 4 other carriers. Code by code: in 306, SaskTel leads with 2 of 4 prefixes ahead of 2 others; in 639, Access Communications Co-operative Limited leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Foam Lake’s 2 area codes, while 5 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

3 of Foam Lake’s 6 prefixes (50.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and SaskTel Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by SaskTel and Access Communications Co-operative Limited. 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

Foam Lake’s dated assignments run from 2006 to 2017. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 2 prefixes (33%) 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 Foam Lake is flat.

Foam Lake’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to SaskTel: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2006. The most recent arrivals are Access Communications Co-operative Limited (2017), Bell Mobility (2017) and SaskTel Mobility (2006), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Foam Lake.

Foam Lake has just 6 prefixes (60,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Foam Lake: the leader, SaskTel, holds only 33.3% of the prefixes against 4 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 Foam Lake numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Foam Lake number

Foam Lake is served by 2 overlaid area codes (306 and 639). A 639 number is no more “out of town” than a 306 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Foam Lake shares area codes 306 and 639 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, North Battleford, Yorkton, Swift Current and Moosomin. The largest of them, Regina, holds 157 prefixes in 306 and 639; the smallest on the list, Rosthern, has just 12.

What a Foam Lake number tells you

A number attached to Foam Lake tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Saskatchewan, most often SaskTel. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 5 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 Saskatchewan area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Foam Lake: code 306-272 is recorded for SaskTel, so every 306-272-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Foam Lake, Saskatchewan” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Foam Lake prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 6 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Saskatchewan