Phone prefixes in Grand Manan, NB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

3

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 23, 2005

Most recent assignment

May 20, 2022

Grand Manan’s share of its area code

Within area code 506, Grand Manan accounts for only 4 of 677 prefixes (0.6%): the code is dominated by Moncton and spread over 88 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Aliant Telecom(NB) holds the largest share at 2 prefixes, 50.0% of the total, ahead of 2 other carriers. Code by code: in 506, Aliant Telecom(NB) leads with 2 of 4 prefixes ahead of 2 others.

Wireless and wireline

1 of Grand Manan’s 4 prefixes (25.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility Aliant. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Aliant Telecom(NB) and Distributel. 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 Manan’s dated assignments run from 2005 to 2022. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (25%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 1 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Grand Manan’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom(NB): this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Aliant Telecom(NB) in 2005. The most recent arrivals are Distributel (2022), Bell Mobility Aliant (2006) and Aliant Telecom(NB) (2005), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Grand Manan.

Grand Manan has just 4 prefixes (40,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

Aliant Telecom(NB) leads with 50.0% of the prefixes, but 2 competitors have set up in Grand Manan: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Demand remains steady: 33.3% 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.

The register also shows 1 prefix assigned but not yet in service in Grand Manan (Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable)): numbers that will start showing up on call displays in the coming months.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Grand Manan number

A single area code, 506, covers Grand Manan, 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 +1 506 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Grand Manan shares area code 506 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, Miramichi, Bathurst, Edmundston, Campbellton and Tracadie. The largest of them, Moncton, holds 79 prefixes in 506; the smallest on the list, Petitcodiac, has just 9.

What a Grand Manan number tells you

A number attached to Grand Manan tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in New Brunswick, most often Aliant Telecom(NB). It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 3 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 Manan: code 506-661 is recorded for Aliant Telecom(NB), so every 506-661-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Grand Manan, New Brunswick” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Grand Manan prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 4 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in New Brunswick