Phone prefixes in Levis, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

24

Telephone numbers covered

240,000

Carriers

10

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

August 28, 2003

Most recent assignment

July 11, 2023

Levis’s share of its area codes

Within area code 418, Levis accounts for only 11 of 777 prefixes (1.4%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 258 rate centres. Within area code 581, Levis accounts for only 11 of 778 prefixes (1.4%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 232 rate centres. Within area code 367, Levis accounts for only 2 of 232 prefixes (0.9%): the code is dominated by Quebec and spread over 110 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Canada holds the largest share at 7 prefixes, 29.2% of the total, ahead of 9 other carriers. Code by code: in 418, Bell Canada leads with 6 of 11 prefixes ahead of 3 others; in 581, Iristel Inc. leads with 3 of 11 prefixes ahead of 7 others; Fibernetics Corporation is the only holder in 367. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Levis’s 3 area codes, while 7 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

1 of Levis’s 24 prefixes (4.2%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Fido Solutions Inc. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Bell Canada, Videotron Ltd, Iristel Inc and TELUS Quebec. 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

Levis’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2023. The busiest period was 2010–2014, when 6 prefixes went to 5 carriers. 6 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 2 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Levis’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to TELUS Quebec in 2003. The most recent arrivals are Fibernetics Corporation (2021), Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) (2017) and Bell Canada (2017), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Levis.

Levis has only 24 prefixes, or 240,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Levis: the leader, Bell Canada, holds only 29.2% 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.

Allocation is mature: only 11.1% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2010–2014, and 6 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Levis numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

The register also shows 1 prefix assigned but not yet in service in Levis (Cogeco Connexion Inc): numbers that will start showing up on call displays in the coming months.

6 undated in the register.

Dialling a Levis number

Levis is served by 3 overlaid area codes (418, 581 and 367). A 367 number is no more “out of town” than a 418 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Levis shares area codes 418, 581 and 367 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Quebec, Chicoutimi, Alma, Rimouski, Riviere-du-Loup, Thetford Mines, Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce and Saint-Georges-de-Beauce. The largest of them, Quebec, holds 282 prefixes in 367, 418 and 581; the smallest on the list, Chandler, has just 13.

What a Levis number tells you

A number attached to Levis tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, most often Bell Canada. 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 Quebec area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Levis: code 418-833 is recorded for Bell Canada, so every 418-833-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Levis, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Levis prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 24 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec