Phone prefixes in Foremost, AB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

2

Telephone numbers covered

20,000

Carriers

2

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

April 14, 2016

Most recent assignment

April 14, 2016

Foremost’s share of its area codes

Within area code 403, Foremost accounts for only 1 of 781 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 142 rate centres. Within area code 825, Foremost accounts for only 1 of 769 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Calgary and spread over 301 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Distributel holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 1 other carrier. Code by code: TELUS is the only holder in 403; Distributel is the only holder in 825. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Foremost’s 2 area codes, while 2 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

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

How the allocation was built up

Foremost’s dated assignments run from 2016 to 2016. The busiest period was 2015–2019, 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 Foremost is flat.

Foremost’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Distributel in 2016. The most recent arrivals are Distributel (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Foremost.

Foremost 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.

Distributel leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 1 competitors have set up in Foremost: 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 2015–2019, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Foremost numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Foremost number

Foremost is served by 2 overlaid area codes (403 and 825). A 825 number is no more “out of town” than a 403 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Foremost shares area codes 403 and 825 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, High River, Canmore and Banff. The largest of them, Calgary, holds 516 prefixes in 403 and 825; the smallest on the list, Okotoks, has just 10.

What a Foremost number tells you

A number attached to Foremost tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Alberta, most often Distributel. 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 an Alberta area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Foremost: code 825-676 is recorded for Distributel, so every 825-676-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Foremost, Alberta” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Foremost prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in Alberta