Phone prefixes in Gander, NL

In numbers

In-service prefixes

12

Telephone numbers covered

120,000

Carriers

6

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 2, 2003

Most recent assignment

August 18, 2022

Gander’s share of its area code

Within area code 709, Gander accounts for only 12 of 630 prefixes (1.9%): the code is dominated by St. John's and spread over 209 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Aliant Telecom (NF) holds the largest share at 4 prefixes, 33.3% of the total, ahead of 5 other carriers. Code by code: in 709, Aliant Telecom (NF) leads with 4 of 12 prefixes ahead of 5 others.

Wireless and wireline

5 of Gander’s 12 prefixes (41.7%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility Aliant and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Aliant Telecom (NF), Bragg Communications Inc, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) and TELUS Integrated Communications. 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

Gander’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2022. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 4 prefixes (33%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 2 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Gander’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom (NF) and Bell Mobility Aliant: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Aliant Telecom (NF) in 2003. The most recent arrivals are TELUS Integrated Communications (2022), Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) (2012) and Bragg Communications Inc. (2011), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Gander.

Gander has only 12 prefixes, or 120,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Gander: the leader, Aliant Telecom (NF), holds only 33.3% of the prefixes against 5 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: 25.0% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2005–2009. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

4 undated in the register.

Dialling a Gander number

A single area code, 709, covers Gander, 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 +1 709 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Gander shares area code 709 with at least 20 other rate centres, including St. John's, Corner Brook, Clarenville, Carbonear, Marystown, Bay Roberts, Labrador City - Wabush and Deer Lake. The largest of them, St. John's, holds 100 prefixes in 709; the smallest on the list, Grand Bank, has just 5.

What a Gander number tells you

A number attached to Gander tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Newfoundland and Labrador, most often Aliant Telecom (NF). It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 6 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 Newfoundland and Labrador area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Gander: code 709-234 is recorded for Aliant Telecom (NF), so every 709-234-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Gander prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 12 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Newfoundland and Labrador