Phone prefixes in Marathon, ON

In numbers

In-service prefixes

11

Telephone numbers covered

110,000

Carriers

8

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

April 20, 2004

Most recent assignment

September 26, 2024

Marathon’s share of its area code

Within area code 807, Marathon accounts for only 11 of 293 prefixes (3.8%): the code is dominated by Thunder Bay and spread over 85 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Iristel Inc. holds the largest share at 3 prefixes, 27.3% of the total, ahead of 7 other carriers. Code by code: in 807, Iristel Inc. leads with 3 of 11 prefixes ahead of 7 others.

Wireless and wireline

3 of Marathon’s 11 prefixes (27.3%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) and Bell Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Iristel Inc, Bell Canada, Distributel and ExaTEL Inc. 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

Marathon’s dated assignments run from 2004 to 2024. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 3 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (9%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 3 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

Marathon’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 2004. The most recent arrivals are Distributel (2022), TBayTel (2021) and Shaw Telecom Inc. (2019), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in Marathon.

Marathon has only 11 prefixes, or 110,000 numbers: a small rate centre, where the arrival of a single new carrier visibly changes the landscape.

No single carrier dominates Marathon: the leader, Iristel Inc., holds only 27.3% of the prefixes against 7 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Demand remains steady: 30.0% of the dated prefixes go back to the last ten years, the most active period being 2015–2019. The rate centre is growing at a regular rather than explosive pace.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a Marathon number

A single area code, 807, covers Marathon, and it is not overlaid with any other code on this territory: one of the few parts of Canada where seven-digit local dialling may still work. From abroad, dial +1 807 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

Marathon shares area code 807 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Thunder Bay, Kenora, Fort Frances, Dryden, Nipigon, Atikokan, Geraldton and Sioux Lookout. The largest of them, Thunder Bay, holds 67 prefixes in 807; the smallest on the list, Jaffray-Melick, has just 2.

What a Marathon number tells you

A number attached to Marathon tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Ontario, 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 8 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 Marathon: code 807-500 is recorded for Iristel Inc., so every 807-500-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “Marathon, Ontario” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every Marathon prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 11 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Ontario