Phone prefixes in Keremeos, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

9

Telephone numbers covered

90,000

Carriers

7

Area codes

4

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 3, 2003

Most recent assignment

August 30, 2022

Keremeos’s share of its area codes

Within area code 250, Keremeos accounts for only 5 of 781 prefixes (0.6%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres. Within area code 778, Keremeos accounts for only 2 of 779 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres. Within area code 236, Keremeos accounts for only 1 of 730 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 672, Keremeos accounts for only 1 of 320 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 108 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 2 prefixes, 22.2% of the total, ahead of 6 other carriers. Code by code: in 250, TELUS leads with 2 of 5 prefixes ahead of 3 others; in 778, Iristel Inc. leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; Distributel is the only holder in 236; Iristel Inc. is the only holder in 672. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Keremeos’s 4 area codes, while 6 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

3 of Keremeos’s 9 prefixes (33.3%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, TELUS, Bragg Communications Inc 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

Keremeos’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2022. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 3 prefixes went to 3 carriers. 1 prefixes (11%) 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.

Keremeos’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS in 2003. The most recent arrivals are Distributel (2016), Iristel Inc. (2016) and Bragg Communications Inc. (2011), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Keremeos.

Keremeos has just 9 prefixes (90,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates Keremeos: the leader, Iristel Inc., holds only 22.2% of the prefixes against 6 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 12.5% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2005–2009, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Keremeos numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Keremeos number

Keremeos is served by 4 overlaid area codes (250, 778, 236 and 672). A 672 number is no more “out of town” than a 250 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Keremeos shares area codes 250, 778, 236 and 672 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, New Westminster, Abbotsford, Nanaimo, South Kamloops and Prince George. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 397 prefixes in 236, 672 and 778; the smallest on the list, Campbell River, has just 21.

What a Keremeos number tells you

A number attached to Keremeos tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, 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 7 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 British Columbia area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Keremeos: code 778-718 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 778-718-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Keremeos, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Keremeos prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 9 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia