Phone prefixes in Kitimat, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

10

Telephone numbers covered

100,000

Carriers

7

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

March 17, 2003

Most recent assignment

October 27, 2020

Kitimat’s share of its area codes

Within area code 778, Kitimat accounts for only 5 of 779 prefixes (0.6%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres. Within area code 250, Kitimat accounts for only 4 of 781 prefixes (0.5%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres. Within area code 236, Kitimat accounts for only 1 of 730 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

TELUS holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 30.0% of the total, ahead of 6 other carriers. Code by code: in 778, TELUS leads with 1 of 5 prefixes ahead of 4 others; in 250, TELUS leads with 2 of 4 prefixes ahead of 2 others; Bell West Inc. is the only holder in 236. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Kitimat’s 3 area codes, while 5 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

4 of Kitimat’s 10 prefixes (40.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: TELUS Mobility, Bell Mobility and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by TELUS, Bell West Inc, CityWest Cable (North) Corp - BC and Navigata Communications Limited. 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

Kitimat’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2020. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 4 prefixes went to 4 carriers. 2 prefixes (20%) 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.

Kitimat’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 Mobility in 2003. The most recent arrivals are Bell West Inc. (2020), TELUS (2016) and Navigata Communications Limited (2015), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Kitimat.

Kitimat has only 10 prefixes, or 100,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Kitimat: the leader, TELUS, holds only 30.0% 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 2 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Kitimat numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

2 undated in the register.

Dialling a Kitimat number

Kitimat is served by 3 overlaid area codes (778, 250 and 236). A 236 number is no more “out of town” than a 778 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Kitimat shares area codes 778, 250 and 236 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, New Westminster, Nanaimo, South Kamloops, Prince George and Abbotsford. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 314 prefixes in 236 and 778; the smallest on the list, North Vancouver, has just 21.

What a Kitimat number tells you

A number attached to Kitimat tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often TELUS. 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 Kitimat: code 778-659 is recorded for TELUS, so every 778-659-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Kitimat, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Kitimat prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 10 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia