Phone prefixes in Frontier, SK

In numbers

In-service prefixes

3

Telephone numbers covered

30,000

Carriers

3

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 7, 2017

Most recent assignment

August 14, 2017

Frontier’s share of its area codes

Within area code 639, Frontier accounts for only 2 of 776 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Regina and spread over 202 rate centres. Within area code 306, Frontier accounts for only 1 of 777 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Saskatoon and spread over 228 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Mobility holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 33.3% of the total, ahead of 2 other carriers. Code by code: in 639, Bell Mobility leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; SaskTel is the only holder in 306. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Frontier’s 2 area codes, while 3 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

2 of Frontier’s 3 prefixes (66.7%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility and SaskTel Mobility. That makes this a mostly mobile rate centre, which is typical of recent allocations: new prefixes go overwhelmingly to cellphones. 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

Frontier’s dated assignments run from 2017 to 2017. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 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 Frontier is flat.

Frontier’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 Bell Mobility in 2017. The most recent arrivals are SaskTel Mobility (2017) and Bell Mobility (2017), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Frontier.

Frontier has just 3 prefixes (30,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Frontier: the leader, Bell Mobility, holds only 33.3% of the prefixes against 2 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 2015–2019, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Frontier numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

Dialling a Frontier number

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

The numbering neighbourhood

Frontier shares area codes 639 and 306 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 Frontier number tells you

A number attached to Frontier tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Saskatchewan, most often Bell Mobility. It does not tell you where the handset is today: most of Frontier’s prefixes are mobile, and a cellphone keeps its number when its owner moves across the country. 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 Frontier: code 639-794 is recorded for Bell Mobility, so every 639-794-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Frontier, Saskatchewan” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Frontier prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 3 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Saskatchewan