Phone prefixes in Fort Frances, ON

In numbers

In-service prefixes

17

Telephone numbers covered

170,000

Carriers

9

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

October 1, 2004

Most recent assignment

September 19, 2024

Fort Frances’s share of its area code

Within area code 807, Fort Frances accounts for only 17 of 293 prefixes (5.8%): the code is dominated by Thunder Bay and spread over 85 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 5 prefixes, 29.4% of the total, ahead of 8 other carriers. Code by code: in 807, Iristel Inc. leads with 5 of 17 prefixes ahead of 8 others.

Wireless and wireline

5 of Fort Frances’s 17 prefixes (29.4%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless), Bell Mobility and Fido Solutions Inc. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, Bell Canada, Distributel and ExaTEL Inc. 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

Fort Frances’s dated assignments run from 2004 to 2024. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 5 prefixes went to 4 carriers. 2 prefixes (12%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 3 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Fort Frances’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2004. The most recent arrivals are Distributel (2022), Shaw Telecom Inc. (2019) and TBayTel (2017), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Fort Frances.

Fort Frances has only 17 prefixes, or 170,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Fort Frances: the leader, Iristel Inc., holds only 29.4% of the prefixes against 8 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Demand remains steady: 20.0% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2010–2014. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Fort Frances number

A single area code, 807, covers Fort Frances, and it is not overlaid with any other code on this territory: one of the few parts of Canada where seven-digit local dialling may still work. From abroad, dial +1 807 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Fort Frances shares area code 807 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Thunder Bay, Kenora, Dryden, Marathon, Nipigon, Atikokan, Geraldton and Sioux Lookout. The largest of them, Thunder Bay, holds 67 prefixes in 807; the smallest on the list, Jaffray-Melick, has just 2.

What a Fort Frances number tells you

A number attached to Fort Frances tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Ontario, most often Iristel Inc.. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 9 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 Ontario area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Fort Frances: code 807-788 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 807-788-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Fort Frances, Ontario” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Fort Frances prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 17 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Ontario