Phone prefixes in Maple Creek, SK

In numbers

In-service prefixes

9

Telephone numbers covered

90,000

Carriers

6

Area codes

2

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

March 6, 2006

Most recent assignment

May 16, 2019

Maple Creek’s share of its area codes

Within area code 306, Maple Creek accounts for only 7 of 777 prefixes (0.9%): the code is dominated by Saskatoon and spread over 228 rate centres. Within area code 639, Maple Creek accounts for only 2 of 776 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Regina and spread over 202 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

SaskTel holds the largest share at 4 prefixes, 44.4% of the total, ahead of 5 other carriers. Code by code: in 306, SaskTel leads with 4 of 7 prefixes ahead of 3 others; in 639, Bell Mobility leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of Maple Creek’s 2 area codes, while 6 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

4 of Maple Creek’s 9 prefixes (44.4%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless), SaskTel Mobility and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by SaskTel and TELUS Integrated Communications. 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

Maple Creek’s dated assignments run from 2006 to 2019. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 4 prefixes (44%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. No prefix has been added since 2020: demand for numbers in Maple Creek is flat.

Maple Creek’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to SaskTel: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2006. The most recent arrivals are TELUS Integrated Communications (2019), Bell Mobility (2017) and TELUS Mobility (2010), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Maple Creek.

Maple Creek 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.

SaskTel leads with 44.4% of the prefixes, but 5 competitors have set up in Maple Creek: a market where the incumbent keeps the edge without exclusivity.

Allocation is mature: only 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2005–2009, and 4 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New Maple Creek numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

4 undated in the register.

Dialling a Maple Creek number

Maple Creek is served by 2 overlaid area codes (306 and 639). A 639 number is no more “out of town” than a 306 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

Maple Creek shares area codes 306 and 639 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, North Battleford, Yorkton, Swift Current and Moosomin. The largest of them, Regina, holds 157 prefixes in 306 and 639; the smallest on the list, Rosthern, has just 12.

What a Maple Creek number tells you

A number attached to Maple Creek tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Saskatchewan, most often SaskTel. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 6 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 Saskatchewan area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for Maple Creek: code 306-558 is recorded for SaskTel, so every 306-558-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Maple Creek, Saskatchewan” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every Maple Creek prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

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

Elsewhere in Saskatchewan