Phone prefixes in Grand Falls

In numbers

In-service prefixes

23

Telephone numbers covered

230,000

Carriers

10

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

2

First assignment

October 1, 2001

Most recent assignment

August 22, 2023

Provinces and territories

This name is used for separate rate centres in 2 provinces. The prefixes below share a name in the CNAC register but belong to different communities.

• New Brunswick — 14 prefixes
• Newfoundland and Labrador — 9 prefixes

Grand Falls’s share of its area codes

Within area code 506, Grand Falls accounts for only 14 of 677 prefixes (2.1%): the code is dominated by Moncton and spread over 88 rate centres. Within area code 709, Grand Falls accounts for only 9 of 631 prefixes (1.4%): 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 3 prefixes, 13.0% of the total, ahead of 9 other carriers. Code by code: in 506, Aliant Telecom(NB) leads with 3 of 14 prefixes ahead of 8 others; in 709, Aliant Telecom (NF) leads with 3 of 9 prefixes ahead of 5 others. 5 carriers hold prefixes in every one of Grand Falls’s 2 area codes, while 5 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

7 of Grand Falls’s 23 prefixes (30.4%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility Aliant, TELUS Mobility, Fido Solutions Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Aliant Telecom (NF), Aliant Telecom(NB), Bragg Communications Inc and Iristel 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

Grand Falls’s dated assignments run from 2001 to 2023. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 5 prefixes went to 4 carriers. 5 prefixes (22%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 4 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Grand Falls’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom (NF), Aliant Telecom(NB) and Bell Mobility Aliant: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2001. The most recent arrivals are Iristel Inc. (2016), TELUS Integrated Communications (2014) and Fido Solutions Inc. (2013), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Grand Falls.

Grand Falls has only 23 prefixes, or 230,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Grand Falls: the leader, Aliant Telecom (NF), holds only 13.0% of the prefixes against 9 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: 22.2% 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.

5 undated in the register.

Dialling a Grand Falls number

Grand Falls is served by 2 overlaid area codes (506 and 709). A 709 number is no more “out of town” than a 506 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Grand Falls shares area codes 506 and 709 with at least 20 other rate centres, including St. John's, Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, Miramichi, Bathurst, Edmundston and Corner Brook. The largest of them, St. John's, holds 100 prefixes in 709; the smallest on the list, Bay Roberts, has just 11.

What a Grand Falls number tells you

A number attached to Grand Falls tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in New Brunswick, 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 10 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 New Brunswick area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Grand Falls: code 709-292 is recorded for Aliant Telecom (NF), so every 709-292-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Grand Falls, New Brunswick” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Grand Falls prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 23 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in New Brunswick