Phone prefixes in McAdam, NB

In numbers

In-service prefixes

3

Telephone numbers covered

30,000

Carriers

3

Area codes

1

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

June 29, 2009

Most recent assignment

September 21, 2022

McAdam’s share of its area code

Within area code 506, McAdam accounts for only 3 of 677 prefixes (0.4%): the code is dominated by Moncton and spread over 88 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Aliant Telecom(NB) holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 33.3% of the total, ahead of 2 other carriers. Code by code: in 506, Aliant Telecom(NB) leads with 1 of 3 prefixes ahead of 2 others.

Wireless and wireline

None of McAdam’s holders carries a mobility brand in its registered name: all 3 prefixes belong to wireline or wholesale carriers, among them Aliant Telecom(NB), Distributel and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable). A call showing a McAdam number therefore nominally comes from a landline, cable or VoIP platform rather than a locally assigned cellphone.

How the allocation was built up

McAdam’s dated assignments run from 2009 to 2022. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 1 prefixes went to 1 carrier. 1 prefixes (33%) 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.

McAdam’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Aliant Telecom(NB): this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) in 2009. The most recent arrivals are Distributel (2022) and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Cable) (2009), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in McAdam.

McAdam has just 3 prefixes (30,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates McAdam: the leader, Aliant Telecom(NB), holds only 33.3% of the prefixes against 2 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Growth is recent: 50.0% of the dated prefixes were assigned in the last ten years, peaking in 2005–2009. McAdam is among the rate centres where demand for numbers is still rising quickly.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a McAdam number

A single area code, 506, covers McAdam, 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 +1 506 and the seven-digit number.

The numbering neighbourhood

McAdam shares area code 506 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, Miramichi, Bathurst, Edmundston, Campbellton and Tracadie. The largest of them, Moncton, holds 79 prefixes in 506; the smallest on the list, Petitcodiac, has just 9.

What a McAdam number tells you

A number attached to McAdam tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in New Brunswick, most often Aliant Telecom(NB). It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 3 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 New Brunswick area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for McAdam: code 506-784 is recorded for Aliant Telecom(NB), so every 506-784-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “McAdam, New Brunswick” there names a rate centre, not a municipality.

Every McAdam prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 3 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in New Brunswick