Phone prefixes in McBride, BC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

4

Telephone numbers covered

40,000

Carriers

4

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

September 19, 2007

Most recent assignment

May 13, 2016

McBride’s share of its area codes

Within area code 250, McBride accounts for only 2 of 781 prefixes (0.3%): the code is dominated by Victoria and spread over 268 rate centres. Within area code 236, McBride accounts for only 1 of 730 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 269 rate centres. Within area code 778, McBride accounts for only 1 of 779 prefixes (0.1%): the code is dominated by Vancouver and spread over 159 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Mobility holds the largest share at 1 prefixes, 25.0% of the total, ahead of 3 other carriers. Code by code: in 250, Bell Mobility leads with 1 of 2 prefixes ahead of 1 others; Navigata Communications Limited is the only holder in 236; TELUS Mobility is the only holder in 778. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of McBride’s 3 area codes, while 4 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

2 of McBride’s 4 prefixes (50.0%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility and TELUS Mobility. Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Navigata Communications Limited and TELUS. 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

McBride’s dated assignments run from 2007 to 2016. The busiest period was 2005–2009, when 2 prefixes went to 2 carriers. 1 prefixes (25%) 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 McBride is flat.

McBride’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to TELUS: this carrier made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Bell Mobility in 2007. The most recent arrivals are Navigata Communications Limited (2016), TELUS Mobility (2008) and Bell Mobility (2007), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in McBride.

McBride has just 4 prefixes (40,000 numbers): a very small rate centre, typical of a village or rural area served by a single switching office.

No single carrier dominates McBride: the leader, Bell Mobility, holds only 25.0% of the prefixes against 3 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 0.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2005–2009, and 1 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New McBride numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

1 undated in the register.

Dialling a McBride number

McBride is served by 3 overlaid area codes (250, 236 and 778). A 778 number is no more “out of town” than a 250 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

McBride shares area codes 250, 236 and 778 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, New Westminster, Nanaimo, South Kamloops, Prince George and Abbotsford. The largest of them, Vancouver, holds 314 prefixes in 236 and 778; the smallest on the list, North Vancouver, has just 21.

What a McBride number tells you

A number attached to McBride tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in British Columbia, most often Bell Mobility. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 4 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 British Columbia area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for McBride: code 250-680 is recorded for Bell Mobility, so every 250-680-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “McBride, British Columbia” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every McBride prefix

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

Allocated prefixes

All 4 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in British Columbia