Phone prefixes in Little Current, ON

In numbers

In-service prefixes

9

Telephone numbers covered

90,000

Carriers

9

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

April 4, 2003

Most recent assignment

May 27, 2022

Little Current’s share of its area codes

Within area code 705, Little Current accounts for only 5 of 770 prefixes (0.6%): the code is dominated by Barrie and spread over 203 rate centres. Within area code 249, Little Current accounts for only 4 of 585 prefixes (0.7%): the code is dominated by Sudbury and spread over 176 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Canada holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 11.1% of the total, ahead of 8 other carriers. Code by code: in 705, Bell Canada leads with 1 of 5 prefixes ahead of 4 others; in 249, Distributel leads with 1 of 4 prefixes ahead of 3 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Little Current’s 2 area codes, while 9 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

2 of Little Current’s 9 prefixes (22.2%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Fido Solutions Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Bell Canada, Bragg Communications Inc, Comwave Networks 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

Little Current’s dated assignments run from 2003 to 2022. The busiest period was 2010–2014, 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.

Little Current’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 Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2003. The most recent arrivals are Fibernetics Corporation (2022), Distributel (2018) and TELUS Integrated Communications (2017), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Little Current.

Little Current 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 Little Current: the leader, Bell Canada, holds only 11.1% of the prefixes against 8 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 2010–2014, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Little Current numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Little Current number

Little Current is served by 2 overlaid area codes (705 and 249). A 249 number is no more “out of town” than a 705 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Little Current shares area codes 705 and 249 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Barrie, Sudbury, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Huntsville, Collingwood and Lindsay. The largest of them, Barrie, holds 92 prefixes in 249 and 705; the smallest on the list, Kirkland Lake, has just 12.

What a Little Current number tells you

A number attached to Little Current tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Ontario, 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 9 carriers present here or to a VoIP service usable anywhere. Nor does it tell you who is calling: caller ID can be spoofed, and an Ontario area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Little Current: code 705-368 is recorded for Bell Canada, so every 705-368-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Little Current, Ontario” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Little Current prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in Ontario